There are many factors to consider when buying a new phone, but for most people the crucial element is price. Are you willing to shell out almost a grand on the latest and greatest phone or will a $300 mid-range champion suffice?
The Best Phones 2021: Best Value, Budget and Best of the Best
- Thread starter Julio Franco
- Start date
Reinette Tineker
Posts: 32 +38
Best of the best? Neither of those is worth that label- I hate the form factor of the smart phone that has come to be accepted as the standard. As advanced as the tech industry has become, they still struggle to come up with anything really innovative- it's only lots of storage space, resolution and memory, but no one seems to care about a form following function kind of innovation. Yes there are a couple of folding devices but they're neither outstanding nor competitive, and still very bulky!
Nobina
Posts: 4,508 +5,526
Stock is the best but MIUI 12 has no ads on my phone, maybe that's a region thing. It has about the same about of bloat as any Samsung or non-stock Android phone.
koblongata
Posts: 591 +341
callmesissi
Posts: 8 +2
Having a Xiaomi 8 note, its been a terrible experience! please avoid Xiaomi brand. Miui is HORRIBLE, you get ADDS all the time. unless you take the time to turn them off (you cant turn off all of them) every time I get a Miui update it breaks my phone, this time it goes to auto mute mode everytime it feels like it. Lacks features, OS its a mess, questinable quality, constante reboots requiered . Already ordered a Motorola, I learned my lesson. just avoid chinese designed crap like Huaweii, Oppo, Xiaomi, etc.
amghwk
Posts: 1,566 +1,553
The best value should have gone to Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro:
+120Hz AMOLED screen
+Snapdragon 732G
+108MP Camera
+5020mAh Battery
+8GB RAM with 128GB ROM
+Dedicated microSD slot in addition to Dual-Sim
+IR Blaster
+3.5" headphone Jack
+NFC
+FM Radio
+Android 11 out of the box
+IP53 Dust and Water splash resistant rating.
Price is about $249 in South East Asia
Yes, this phone has 120Hz with an AMOLED screen which gives the OnePlus a run for it's money. The same spec in your chosen "best of the best" phone.
I don't think the addition of 5G in the OnePlus alone is worthy to beat the value of the Note 10 Pro.
Besides 5G is still in it's infancy and nationwide coverage will take a few more years to attain maturity and saturation.
I just upgraded from my trusty Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 to Redmi Note 10. The value can't be beat. Excellent!
Don't know what the bloatedness of the MIUI the author is talking about, but there's no bloat with mine. Running Android 11 and it's near stock. Unwanted apps like Facebook (heh) is easy to uninstall unlike some other phones who integrate many 3rd party apps into their stock ROMs.
(For advanced users, Redmi also has a vibrant development community at XDA and custom ROMs are aplenty. Xiaomi is also friendly towards rooting and provides official app for unlocking the bootloader. Though you have to wait 1 week to unlock it.)
+120Hz AMOLED screen
+Snapdragon 732G
+108MP Camera
+5020mAh Battery
+8GB RAM with 128GB ROM
+Dedicated microSD slot in addition to Dual-Sim
+IR Blaster
+3.5" headphone Jack
+NFC
+FM Radio
+Android 11 out of the box
+IP53 Dust and Water splash resistant rating.
Price is about $249 in South East Asia
Yes, this phone has 120Hz with an AMOLED screen which gives the OnePlus a run for it's money. The same spec in your chosen "best of the best" phone.
I don't think the addition of 5G in the OnePlus alone is worthy to beat the value of the Note 10 Pro.
Besides 5G is still in it's infancy and nationwide coverage will take a few more years to attain maturity and saturation.
I just upgraded from my trusty Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 to Redmi Note 10. The value can't be beat. Excellent!
Don't know what the bloatedness of the MIUI the author is talking about, but there's no bloat with mine. Running Android 11 and it's near stock. Unwanted apps like Facebook (heh) is easy to uninstall unlike some other phones who integrate many 3rd party apps into their stock ROMs.
(For advanced users, Redmi also has a vibrant development community at XDA and custom ROMs are aplenty. Xiaomi is also friendly towards rooting and provides official app for unlocking the bootloader. Though you have to wait 1 week to unlock it.)
Last edited:
kiwigraeme
Posts: 2,014 +1,420
Pretty reasonable selection with justifications .
Except the category: Best for most people
Say what ???? the average person is not a writer for a tech site , the average person is a casual gamer at best , the average person takes snapshots.
So for them the best for value would be great .
So category Best value for heavy users &/or well off ( you can come up with something more elegant )
Why would the average person in the mall want a $600 device that can be dropped easily etc? - Only for silly pride or easy mark for a salesman
Except the category: Best for most people
Say what ???? the average person is not a writer for a tech site , the average person is a casual gamer at best , the average person takes snapshots.
So for them the best for value would be great .
So category Best value for heavy users &/or well off ( you can come up with something more elegant )
Why would the average person in the mall want a $600 device that can be dropped easily etc? - Only for silly pride or easy mark for a salesman
Danny101
Posts: 2,035 +842
If you are of the mind, you can clean up the bloat with LineageOS on most of these Android phones. I have the the M G Power 2020. It was only slightly better upgrade to the G7 Power. It's a bit sluggish with the 665 versus the 632. Not sure why. I think I should have opted for the 2021 version instead. Even the 1080 seems only marginally better than the 720. Now I see why Motorola opted for the 90HZ 720 display on the refresh.
I am not a fan of tall phones, but I don't think I would want it to be wider too. It sounds good until you mistaken it for a brick in my pocket.
Alfatawi Mendel
Posts: 299 +497
"No-one needs a screen that is larger than 3 inches" (Steve Jobs)
QuantumPhysics
Posts: 6,306 +7,258
My iPhone 12 Pro Max 512GB is the best I’ve ever owned, till iPhone 13 replaces it
p51d007
Posts: 3,946 +3,893
My first "smart" phone was the Dell Streak 5. When I bought it, friends of mine that were apple zombies placed their phone on mine and laughed...your screen is bigger than my entire phone. Now look at them.
Danny101
Posts: 2,035 +842
About 5.5 in. is about the best size for me. I do so much on a cell phone, but at a certain point, I move to a laptop. Although I imagine convenient, I've yet haven't rationalized enough of a reason to get a tablet. Most that I've looked into are woefully underpowered in comparison and at a comparable price range to either a smartphone or a laptop.
I had a Motorola G Power 2020 and returned it after I realized how bad the camera was and how laggy the performance was. The thing couldn't take a decent picture, especially of fast-moving children.
I replaced it with a Google Pixel 4a and never looked back. The 4a is faster, lighter, not nearly as thick in your pocket, and to top it all off, the camera performance is phenomenal by comparison. Plus it has stock Android with no Motorola junk.
I replaced it with a Google Pixel 4a and never looked back. The 4a is faster, lighter, not nearly as thick in your pocket, and to top it all off, the camera performance is phenomenal by comparison. Plus it has stock Android with no Motorola junk.
Similar threads
