Smartphone buyer's guide: November 2018 edition
- D
- AnonD-843592
- pc7
- 12 Mar 2019
Why is Mate 20 Pro not in the "Camera Phone" department?
- Y
- Yaga
- ftK
- 11 Mar 2019
I do enjoy the "Smartphone buyer's guide" article. It's awesome and a practical guide. I love it. Colleagues at work do trust me with the buying of smartphones for them, family an friends.
But I wish the guide will be featured monthly or perhaps at 2 months intervals. There exist a huge gap in-between successive guides.
Thanks Gsmarena for the guide.
- ?
- Anonymous
- YTY
- 09 Mar 2019
Buyer's guide should also have a segment on audio quality.
- T
- The American-Indian
- y0K
- 27 Feb 2019
lonewolf08, 22 Feb 2019go for Asus Zenfone 5Z.. It has a very powerful future p... moreDear Lonewolf, Thank you so much. It is indeed a wonderful phone. Unfortunately I missed the great deal on Flipkart for the 6/128 at 25k. There are only the 8/256 left and @ 29k. If I can manage it should I pay this price? It is STILL an awesome deal, esp. since Amazon america sells the 6/64 for close to 30k. Also, some of the reviews I've seen for FLipKart are not very convincing. I am able to order the 29k with COD,which is ironic considering the state of affairs in Kerala. I can't do ANY of the EMi's b/c no one in family has any of the banks listed.On Amazon.in my family has Prime membership so no worries about receiving wrong or beat up products. It's 9:50pm here right now, I really dig this phone. Thinking about biting the bullet on the 8/256. It seems like a no brainer. Anyways thank you again for the break down you gave me, either your a ROG fan or you have a profound knowledge of cellphones-either way you took much time for me and it's greatly appreciated.
- l
- lonewolf08
- g}v
- 22 Feb 2019
The American-Indian, 08 Feb 2019Dear GSMARENA team, firstly thank you for what you all do d... morego for Asus Zenfone 5Z..
It has a very powerful future proof (at least two years) SD845 processor with latest techs like high clock speeds (compared to Kirins and Mediateks), Cat18 Speeds and Dual Volte Support. This is the phone that has actually harnessed the AI capabilites of SD845. Its screen is a Super IPS Screen which supports 96% DCI -P3 color gamut whose quality is as awesome as an amoled for multimedia consumption which is what u want (but still does not over saturate like an amoled), u won't be disappointed (just watch display comparison videos on youtube especially with Poco F1 and even oneplus 6). The brightness hits north of 500 nits making it comfortably usable outdoors. The screen size is 6.2" with notch and very thin bezels especially on sides (very thin compared to a host of others in same price range) that make the screen appreciably big for entertainment and still compact especially length wise as compared to ever growing stupid screen sizes. They haven't missed out on a Corning Gorilla Glass protection either. Get the 128GB ROM version to be future proof. The 8/256 GB version is a bit of a overkill which will increase price unnecessarily. The internal ROM file system is UFS 2.1 unlike a load of Oppos and Vivos still giving EMMC storage at premium prices and the RAM is of LPDDR4X type. The camera is a good quality 12MP dual pixel + 4 axis OIS alongwith a wide angle sensor and has very good performance in low light with features like AI Scene Detection and Super Resolution modes. It has a Dual Tone Dual LED flash as well. The front camera is just decent (The camera performances keep improving with updates). It is one of the few phones with dual stereo speakers+DTS X HiFi Audio through 3.5mm jack. (Basically, u had to look towards the LG flagship every time to get the best audio output but this year 5z comes as close to its audio performance as it gets). The Zen UI 5 on Android Pie (Pie update is available with even sleeker UI, camera improvements and additional features) is a light and well optimized interface with tons of customizations and features lile AI Optiflex, AI Trickle Charging, GameGenie, Android Beam, Audio Wizard, AI Power Master, PageMaker, Go2Pay, TwinApps, SmartScreen Rotate, AI Ringtone (volume adjusts according to surroundings), Inbulit AppLock, AI brightness (automatic adjustment of not only brightness but even colors according to environment). Also, though late updates, ASUS has a track of giving software support for long time (their Zenfone 3 series, if I ma not wrong, even got till Oreo). The battery is 3300 Mah which is slightly on lower side according to me (a 3700 would have made this device formidable in this price segment and this is perhaps the only department in my view where Poco F1 has an actual advantage). So, the battery life will be moderate and could last a day with medium usage but the good thing is that features like Power Master and AI Trickle Charge helps save and monitor the battery efficiency very well over long age.
What more! It even has a multi colored notification LED, supports NFC, has Bluetooth 5.0 and 18W fast charging via USB Type-C (very few devices except the flagships offer BT v5.0, most are stuck with BT v4.2). The rigid aluminum glass build is both an eye catcher and durable (don't forget a good case though, glass backs, no matter what kind of strength, are prone to cracks easily).
And price?!!
24999 INR ~350$ for the 6/128 version on sales..
If u are reading this today on 22nd of Feb 2019 and u are from India, go to flipkart website right now where Mobile Bonanza sale is going on and u can get an additional 10% Discount on AXIS Bank Cards over the already lowered price of 24999 i.e. final price 23499 INR. U can't get any better deal than this with the kind of package i are getting for the price, even over Poco F1.. (If u don't have AXIS cards, arrange from some family or friends, don't let go this opportunity if u really want a beast performing device loaded with features for a crap price!!)
OVERALL, THIS IS THE BEST AND COMPLETE BUDGET FLAGSHIP ALLROUNDER SMARTPHONE that u should buy if u have a limited budget and that GSM arena chose to ignore from their crap called Buyer's Guide..
Some absentee features expected from a Flagship include lack of IP68 water resistance and wireless charging...easily overlook it..its no brainer at the price..
..And hey...get the Meteor Silver one ;)
- M
- Mdnoor63
- 8nD
- 16 Feb 2019
Says,,No,,oh,.No,.2all of FonMania until we touchline 5G.signal,copy that!!👍😎🌐😈⚡🕘🤙👉🚦
- T
- The American-Indian
- y0K
- 08 Feb 2019
Dear GSMARENA team, firstly thank you for what you all do day in and day out. You must have an endless supply of aspirin and vodka. If you don't than your way better folks than me. I have a Galaxy S5. Yeah, I know right, but trust me it cost a small fortune to keep it going. And not just the extra Batts, the Amoled screen replacement cost me 4500r here in India. I love my "media" machine. That is until last Nov. Uptil then she as the Terminator put it was "old, not obselete". With 2 gigs of ram there aren't too many apps installed, sadly I'm down to four. And they are payment gateways for phone recharges and electric bill payments. But its restarting by itself now. I don't make a lot of money, so it's safe to say that even if I could at some point have the privilege to buy a fully optioned(ie, lexus,bmw,benz) standard phone, there are more important "bills" that need to be paid. So my TOTAL budget which hasn't changed in the last 7 months is a whole 25000 rupees. I have @ my disposal a 64gb sdcard, and an @ the time very expensive set of Sony NC series headphones. It is time to "retire" my S5 from the daily driver to Nav unit. I need a replacement, & am seriously considering the Poco. I have not seen the phone in person, mainly b/c it's a 3hr trip to & from the nearest store which sells them here in Kerala. I don't youtube as much as "normal" people, my usual movies are Blu ripped to sdcard. They consist of Marvel collection, LOTR, STAR WARS,STAR TREK, & POTC. So, streaming in HD is not necessary. Aside from an happily avoiding expensive screen replacement later on, would you consider Poco for my needs. Is the screen sufficient to watch an already dl'd movie. If not, then what phone upto 25/26000r range. Ps- I don't do any gaming nor code for NASA. But I would like a bit of future proofing and for me it means having sdcard and 3.5mm jack, & decent ram.
Thank you, and God bless GSMARENA.
Almost faithfully yours, Noble.
- ?
- Anonymous
- y0K
- 08 Feb 2019
Qwerty2018, 24 Nov 2018Then, both of them are NOT for u, dude... 3.5 mm jack ..... moreI feel your pain. I do. Why, b/c I own a Galaxy S5. I love my phone for what it does. Had it not been for the 2 gigs of ram of which only 30% is available, and the very expensively replaced Amoled screen, 3 extra Batts w/ separate wall adapter/charger. I have the upto date Marvel collection on the 64gb card. Add the fact of an older but excellent set of Sony NC headphones, and my phone is a media phone. But she's lagging and I can only install and run a few important apps. I don't have an 80k a year job, I don't have the privilege of allocating 800 700 600 500 or 400$ for a new phone. Not to mention for us these phones for the most part @ the time were "future proof". Which is to say bt ready, 3.5mm jack, replaceable battery, sdcard slot (albeit upto 64) and decent wifi bands.
- ?
- Anonymous
- 8pc
- 20 Jan 2019
No A7 2018 in any section?It is decent in terms of battery life,screen and camera.Why?
- ?
- Anonymous
- rW$
- 06 Jan 2019
I can't believe you included the pixel 3xl in the flagship section...you guys are full of' politically correctness'.
That phone was a huge disappointment even for pixel hard core fans. And 8t is just very very very very overpriced.
Allthough you left out so many better phones
- C
- CharlesPH
- I@H
- 04 Jan 2019
How come Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro is on the best cameras and not the Redmi Note 6 Pro? 🤔🤔🤔
- J
- Josephboom
- pi{
- 24 Dec 2018
khrm, 23 Nov 2018Wow...so many phones listed and yet so few from one of the ... morecons : very good cameras insane battery life average decent chipset
pros : camera uı sometimes lagging
my comment : worth money
- ?
- Anonymous
- P%u
- 18 Dec 2018
I generally like the review. you folks said that the Redmi S2 has a snappy (yet old) Snapdragon 625 SoC, excellent battery life despite having a 3080maH battery to power a 6-inch 720p display. and that the only bad thing it has is its limited availabilty.
but when you reviewed the Mi A2 Lite, you said one of its bad things was its MEDIOCRE chipset, which is a Snapdragon 625 like the Redmi S2. if that is the case, then the bad point against the Redmi S2 should also be a mediocre chipset since both use Snapdragon 625 SoCs.
so which is which???
- m
- mo1
- NuU
- 15 Dec 2018
Great list though l feel like the Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite (Redmi 6 Pro) should have featured; but this is a very satisfactory list to say the least.
Thank you.
- B
- BrendonF
- HsF
- 13 Dec 2018
B, 23 Nov 2018Did u use a honor play it camera quality is better than Poco f1Gsmarena states that the Poco f1 offers a better camera so your statement about the Honor Play having a better camera is incorrect. Honor had a better camera set up at the time but they didn't put it in the honor play for cost cutting while xaiomi put the same main camera used in their flagship mi8 minus the ois as cost cutting.
- ?
- Anonymous
- fC{
- 12 Dec 2018
balali, 05 Dec 2018am from Tanzania ibought smartphone s9 galaxy when lwas bei... moreit will not work unless you unlock it
- L
- LIRKER
- KZJ
- 10 Dec 2018
No bad on Poco but bad low-light camera on XZ2. Seriously?! Poco just have SD845, other than that (camera, screen, build quality etc.) is just like other low-end phones.
- ?
- Anonymous
- S2T
- 09 Dec 2018
The Pocophone is more like around 290 Euro and Honor Play around 250 Euro.. both are insane value for money..