The long wait has now ended, and there are already two foldable phones that have been introduced and many more are in the making. Phones with flexible screens are now a reality. They come in different concept designs, have their high-resolution touchscreen displays fold in different ways, and look different from one another.

Google in the other hand worked its way in adjusting the Android Framework into becoming a safe house for such the foldable devices. Developers at Android will adjust the software to allow folding mobiles to transition applications from one screen to another automatically as you fold or unfold the device, add support for multiple apps to run simultaneously across different split-screens, and provide a smooth transition across multiple screens connected to the phone.

Even now, there are quite some apps that support multiple display modes, and developers won’t be having a tough time to make them work smoothly with the Galaxy Fold or the Mate X, the two most popular foldables as of now.

Phones with flexible screens that you can fold are still in their infancy days, and you don’t really need one. But, if you are one of those people that wants to proudly claim of being the first to have had a foldable phone and you don’t really care to pay the top dollar on an experimental product, here are the best folding phones that have been announced and that you will be able to get your hands into very soon.

Huawei Mate X

Huawei might have just successfully outcompeted Samsung by releasing the first 5G-ready smartphone that also folds. The Mate X differs from the Galaxy Fold, the flexible screen on this handset folds in the outside, it is amazingly sleek and makes a much better smartphone-to-tablet convertible than the Galaxy Fold.

The Mate X appears to have an edge on the hardware level from anything foldable introduced until now. The screen you get when the device is in tablet mode grows to 8-inches, and you also have that large wraparound display with an outstandingly high screen real estate.

You can use the Mate X as a regular notch-less smartphone that just happens to have two displays that are up for function simultaneously. Something that you simply cannot do with Samsung’s counterpart, if you fold it, the only display that functions is the tiny 4.6-inch cover screen. Phone-mode of the Galaxy Fold where you have a large device with a small touch-enabled screen in the center doesn’t seem to be something everyone is craving for. The Huawei folding phone is also slim when folded, it measures only 11mm of thickness at its thickest point and when folded is extremely sleek, the depth of the touchscreen display measures only 5.4mm.

When the Mate X folds, the front display is of 6.6-inches with a 6.39-inch screen moving on the back, and it sits right next to a sophisticated non-touchscreen strip on the side that hosts the four camera sensors, a LED flash, and the power button.

Huawei also made an excellent smartphone for photography and hi-res video recording when designing the Mate X. The foldable Mate X houses a 40MP primary sensor, a 16MP camera with an ultrawide angle of view, an 8MP telephoto camera, and a time-of-flight sensor. All of which are Leica-made and enable it to capture compelling imagery and record 4K videos. You can use all those cameras for selfies and video chat by just folding the device and utilizing the 6.39-inch cover display. The screen used by Huawei on this device is OLED and has a resolution of 2200 x 2480 pixels and features a pixel density of 414 pixels per inch. The same resolution of the Galaxy Fold excluding the ugly notch, thicker body, and a proper phone mode usability.

The Kirin 980 chipset with Balong 5000 modem gives speed and support for the 5G network when it rolls out. There are 8GB of RAM and 512GB of onboard memory coming with each Mate X flexible phablet. This storage capacity can be expanded by an addition of 256GB via Huawei‘s innovative Nano Memory card. The NM card can be mounted on the second SIM card. Mate X runs Android 9 with a custom-built EMUI 9.1 overlay that allows you to use both displays as standalone touchscreen panels that can have the different apps running on them work on their own or interact with each other.

Mate X gets powered by a 4,500 mAh, and there is a side-mounted fingerprint reader for instant access to the content of the phone.

Samsung Galaxy Fold

A folding Samsung phone was what everyone thought of over the years whenever the subject of folding touchscreen displays on mobile devices came up. The first Samsung foldable phone, the Galaxy Fold, might not be exactly the giant leap to the next-generation of handheld mobile devices. It has excellent hardware and software, but it doesn’t even attempt to make the best of its flexible screen.

The Samsung Galaxy Fold (previously rumored as the Galaxy X) packs a 7.3-inch primary OLED display with a resolution of 1536 x 2152 pixels and can be utilized only the device is unfolded. Samsung utilizes a sophisticated hinge that revolves around multiple interlocking gears to enable flexibility to the phone‘s screen. When the Galaxy Fold is folded, both screens wrap one over the other with a tiny space in between, and you can’t use any part of the 7.3-inch display. Samsung implemented a secondary 4.6-inch screen on the cover that serves as a primary display when the device is in folded mode.

Samsung didn’t hold its self with the cameras mounted on the Galaxy Fold. It packed it up with six cameras, three cameras on the back and three on the front. The rear sensors serve as primary cameras, and they are made of a 12MP standard wide-angle camera, a 16MP ultra-wide sensor excellent for capturing panorama shots, and a 12MP telephoto unit with 2-times optical zoom. A 10MP and 8MP sensor are mounted on the notch on the side of the large screen, and there’s a third 10MP camera placed above the cover display for capturing selfies when the device folds.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 with 12GB of RAM, 512GB of non-expandable local memory, and a customized Android 9 version of the OS grant to this device lightning speeds. A 5G version of this handset will be released shortly as well. Samsung added software functions that enable the phone to run three apps simultaneously, a feature known as the multi-active-window, and another feature called app continuity. App continuity is the function that allows for you to load into the large main screen anything you’re viewing on the cover display by simply folding the device. Such utility feature is actually very useful, imagine having to repeat every step that sent you to an interesting piece of information on the cover display once you fold the phone.

Galaxy Fold receives the fuel from a 4,380 mAh battery, sports a side-mounted fingerprint reader, and has every sensor you can find on the latest Samsung phones. It, however, is not one of the Samsung-made phones featuring the headphone jack.

Royole FlexPai

Did you know that neither Samsung Galaxy Fold or Huawei Mate X are not the first foldables to go official? That’s right. World’s first foldable phone actually is the Royole FlexPai, a flexible phone built by a China-based manufacturer of shirts and hats that also equip flexible screens. If you want a shirt or a hat with a display, Royole is the best place to look for.

The Royole FlexPai sports a 7.8-inch flexible AMOLED display with full HD resolution when unfolded. FlexPai folds in a similar mean to the Mate X, and when folded the device cuts the whole screen into three standalone displays that support app interaction. Royole even shares functions with smartphones having curved edge displays by using the flexed section of the screen as the place where notifications are shown while you’re using it.

FlexPai runs the Snapdragon 855 SoC and has variants with 6GB and 8GB of RAM and is pre-loaded with Android 9 and WaterOS overlay for the custom fold software functions. It also houses 128GB and 256GB of onboard memory, a storage capacity that can be further extended via a microSD card. A 16MP and 20MP dual-camera setup allow it to capture high-resolution photography.

Royole appears to have rushed with the release of the FlexPai. It seems more like a prototype rather than a ready-for-shipping smartphone. But still, it is the only folding phone that you can buy right now.

LG V50 ThinQ

The LG V50 ThinQ doesn’t technically have a flexible display, but it shares support for a detachable secondary screen that you can pair it with. The experience is quite different from the only provided by the regular foldables, but, if you want two screens on a phone mounted one over the other, this phone still provides you with a solution.

The V50 ThinQ runs the Snapdragon 855 chipset and comes with Qualcomm X50 5G-enabled modem. It sports a 6.4-inch QHD+ OLED display, a triple camera setup on the back that revolves around a 12MP standard sensor, another 12MP telephoto unit with two-time optical zoom, and a 16MP ultra-wide lens for capturing 4K videos. A front-facing dual-camera setup of an 8MP and 5MP are LG‘s selfie and video chat gift with every V50 ThinQ.

LG made the V50 ThinQ compatible with a detachable secondary screen that can actually turn this phone into a lightning-fast gaming phone and even a more practical device than any current folding handheld device.

The V50 ThinQ has everything you need in a dual-screen phone. It has a rear-mounted fingerprint, headphone jack, a large capacity battery of 4,000 mAh, extendable storage, and about everything else a high-end phone needs to have.

Other unannounced incoming foldable phones

Several major and not-so-big companies have shown interest in phones that can have their displays fold. Apple has filed several patents regarding foldables although no such phone will be coming during this year.

Sony is said to be working on a foldable phone of its own that when folded out will be revealing a screen with 4K resolution. The name of the device is rumored to be the Sony Xperia Note Flex, and when unfolded the 4K display will be measuring 6.2 inches.

Motorola is following a different concept design for its folding device. Rumors suggest that it will morph the Razr phone into a foldable device that replaces the physical keyboard with a touchscreen panel when you flip it out. The folding Motorola Razr will have a secondary cover screen just like the 15-year-old flip-flop Razr phone.

A folding Oppo phone popped up in the Chinese micro-blogging site Weibo. The prototype appears to be a Huawei Mate X lookalike that folds in the same way and even have the same strip on the rear for reserved for the cameras.

Xiaomi had its official tweet a video that displays a prototype of a foldable mobile phone. The shown prototype has its screen fold into two sections, and when folded the phone gets much smaller and compact than most other similar devices that we have seen by now. Xiaomi officially announced that it will be surveying reactions and if people show interest at it then the company will get the working to get it into mass production.

TCL, a Chinese company of electronics, brought a prototype of a foldable phone of their own to the MWC 2019 event and this foldable follows a similar design to the Galaxy Fold. The phone folds in, and there is a secondary cover screen for the users to check notifications and other things.

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The successor of 4G sets to change the way we interact with connected technologies. Devices running the 5th generation network will be able to move data at greater speeds, be more responsive (the time at which devices take to communicate with each other is at around 50-70 milliseconds, 5G is aiming for a latency of under 1milisecond), and connect to a lot more devices at the same time.

To enjoy the greater speeds that will be faster than the current 4G you will need a 5G phone and luckily 5G-enabled smartphones are ready to become the pioneers of the 5th generation of mobile network.

What is 5G?

5G is the new generation of cellular networks and if done right there may never be a need for developing the 6G. At least not in the short term. 5G operates in three major spectrum bands, although the high-band spectrum is what makes 5G stand superior to the 4G LTE and revolutionizes the way we think about smart devices.

Like any other cellular network, the 5G’s composition will be a system of cell sites divided into sectors that send encoded data through radio waves. What makes the high-band spectrum expected to be the backbone of the 5G network superior to anything we currently have is the minimization in the size of the wavelengths of those radio waves that is accompanied with the increase in the frequencies.

Radio waves belonging to these new and much higher frequencies, measured at around 30GHz, will have the corresponding wavelength measuring from 10 to one millimeter. Thus, the name millimeter wave (mmWave). The high-band spectrum of radio waves doesn’t do well with physical obstacles such as buildings and trades it for speeds, 5G will primarily utilize and rely on small cells.

Small cells are low-powered base stations that cover relatively small areas. Together with beamforming and mmWaves small cells deliver extremely fast coverage and maintain a latency of up to 100 times faster than what we currently have. This technology is what allows 5G to reach speeds ranging from 10Gbps to 20Gbps while maintaining a latency of 1milisecond or lower.

During the early days of the 5G network, it will be distributed to small areas and be backed by the current 4G infrastructure or will have such infrastructure as the backup when coverage issues are encountered. Carriers will initially run the 5G network on lower bands and increase them with time as the network further develops.

Even the development for the fourth generation network hasn’t finished yet. For instance, Qualcomm X24 modem that comes with phones powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 can reach speeds of up to 2Gbps. Such speeds are provided by the current 4G infrastructure. Snapdragon 855-running phones that are modified to support the 5G network feature the Qualcomm X50 modem that is optimized for the high-frequency radio waves.

As the 5G will not be standalone at its debut and will require 4G coverage to work, you will be doing quite well without it in the short term. However, if you want to be future-proof and have a device that will support the next generation of mobile networks, here are the best announced 5G smartphones that you should keep an eye at.

Samsung Galaxy S10 5G

Samsung’s leading Android phone, Galaxy S10, received an early 5G touch ahead of the next-gen network global release. The 5G-enabled Galaxy S10 is the largest of its siblings, this beast of a phone packs a 6.7-inch QHD AMOLED screen with curves on the edges. It is the thickest of the S10 members too, being the only member with 7.9mm body thickness with the other variants being slightly slimmer, 7.8mm. Just like it other siblings, it is built with glass from the 6th generation of Corning Gorilla and is optimized for wireless charging.

Although rendered as a notch-less phone, it actually has a screen cutout notch for the 10MP selfie camera and a time-of-flight sensor that replaces the 8MP depth sensor featured on the S10 Plus. There are four cameras on the back. Two 12MP sensors where one serves as a standard camera and the other is a telephoto sensor, a 16MP sensor with an ultrawide angle, and a forth TOF sensor. The new generation of Samsung flagship phones is capable of capturing 4K videos with the cameras on either side. This grants them a first-place in the race for the best camera phone for the time being.

The mammoth Samsung phone is powered by the Snapdragon 855 chipset and it has the Qualcomm X50 Modem that allows it to become a 5G-compatible smartphone. It has 8GB of RAM and Android 9 Pie with the One UI skin built over it. The current model that has been in the showcase has 8GB of RAM and 256GB of local storage, however, when the product launches it will most likely be having a 12GB of RAM edition with 512GB and 1TB of local memory capacity just like the S10 Plus has.

While there isn’t any 5G network for the phone to run in, the S10 5G is rather a larger S10 Plus that doesn’t do anything better than it.

Huawei Mate X

Huawei might just be the company with the most produced 5G phones in 2019. The maker of prime China phones is expected to have two Huawei-branded 5G phones and a third Honor 5G flagship phone. The only unit announced to date is the Mate X, the world’s first 5G foldable phone.

Huawei followed a different design concept from the one implemented on Samsung’s Galaxy Fold, another phone that features a foldable screen. It folds face out and with such design, it doesn’t need to have a secondary selfie camera setup.

When unfolded, the Mate X gets an almost square-shaped 8-inch display and when folded it turns into a 6.6-inch phone that is thicker than a regular phone. The OLED screen on the Mate X features a resolution of 2200 x 2480 pixels.

There are four cameras placed vertically one over the other in the back of the phone. The cover screen is built to fit tight just next to them when the phone folds. This phone houses a 40MP regular camera, an 8MP telephoto sensor, a 16MP ultrawide camera, and a time-of-flight sensor. The cameras on the Mate X are made by Leica and have impressive capabilities.

Huawei’s folding phone runs the 7nm Kirin 980 and has 8GB of RAM and 512GB of internal memory. The storage can be expanded via Huawei’s Nano Card, an attempt by the company to replace microSD cards. There’s little information about the modem Huawei uses to make its device 5G-capable. Buttons and a fingerprint sensor are mounted on the side of the handheld device.

LG V50 ThinQ 5G

LG’s 5G flagship phone is primarily a V40 ThinQ from late-last-year with a faster processor and a modem to make fitting to connect to 5G networks. Despite sharing most of its qualities with a phone LG currently has in stock, the V50 can turn into a folding phone with an attachable accessory. The second screen on the V50 ThinQ comes shaped like a cover case and in it, there’s a 6.2-inch OLED panel that can be used independently or along the primary 6.4-inch QHD+ panel. You can browse the web or open your social media in one screen and stream a movie in the other. The function to use the secondary display as a touch-only game controller. LG’s concept of a folding phone may just be better. It certainly delivered a high-end Snapdragon 855-powered gaming phone to keep an eye at.

Most of the other feature supports of the V50 are shared with the V40 ThinQ. It has the same triple camera-setup on the back and dual front-facing cameras. The chipset, in this case, is the Snapdragon 855 and it has 8GB of RAM and Android 9 to back it up. The onboard storage is 128GB with the support to extend it further via a microSD card.

LG’s folding flagship is a not-so-common premium phone featuring the earphone jack. It sports a fingerprint reader on the back and packs a 4,000 mAh battery, a unit with a larger capacity than the one found on the V40 ThinQ which is also used to power the secondary detachable screen.

Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G

The maker of high-performing affordable phones, Xiaomi, upgraded its recently-released Mi Mix 3 with a 5G edition. The 6.39-inch Mi Mix 3 5G edition is the same Mi Mix 3 with a Gorilla Glass 5 panel on the front to protect the FHD OLED screen and a ceramic body on the back.

The bezel-less 3rd generation of Xiaomi Mi Mix with 5G network compatibility also rocks the back slider where the selfie cameras are mounted that avoids giving a screen notch to the device. Two 12MP cameras on the back where one of which is a telephoto sensor and two selfie cameras offer high-resolution photoshoots and video recordings on both sides.

This upgraded Mi Mix 3 will be housing Snapdragon 855 chipset and will most likely have an 8GB, and 10GB of RAM special models just like the standard Mix 3. Android 9 with MIUI 10 overlay come pre-loaded into the phone and there’s a 3,800 mAh battery to power it. The battery on the 5G version of the Mix 3 has its capacity increased by 600 mAh.

ZTE Axon 10 Pro 5G

ZTE had tipped off about an upcoming smartphone that features a curved display since 2017 and it is finally here. The ZTE Axon 10 Pro 5G sets to succeed the Axon 9 Pro sometime later this year, it might as well become the first Android One 5G phone in case ZTE decides to load it with the same software as the current Axon flagship, the 9 Pro.

ZTE has experimented quite a lot with its digital products. The China-based mobile phone producer introduced the dual-screen Nubia X, an unusual concept design of a smartwatch with 4G LTE cellular functionalities and a camera called Nubia Alpha, and it now sets sight to next-generation 5G mobile phones.

The future ZTE Axon will be very distinct from the present top dog performer phone. It will be larger, the front screen will measure 6.47-inches and will be hosting an FHD OLED panel that will have a slight cutout notch for the 20MP selfie camera right on the upper center. The fingerprint sensor is embedded under the display and there will be three cameras on the back and one at the front.

Cameras of this phone are appealing. The stunning 48MP Sony imx586 camera will be assisted by a 20MP ultrawide angle and an 8MP telephoto sensor. Aided by the 7nm architecture Snapdragon 855 built for AI, the ZTE phone of the future will undoubtedly make the most of its impressing camera sensors. There will be 6GB of RAM with 128GB of expansive memory with Android 9 on the top.

The post Best 5G phones: Top smartphones that run the next-gen network appeared first on Gadget Detected - News, Reviews, Specs, and Deals on all Smartphone devices.

There have been several attempts to redesign smartphones to make them appear more garish. Visible bezels get in the way in that and aside from aesthetic-related issues, they make phones be larger than they should be. A minimization on bezels enables mobiles devices to rock larger touchscreen displays without significant changes on the overall size of the device.

To minimize the not-touchscreen portions of the screen phones began losing the physical Home key and replaced the three touch sensors under the screen with software cloaking that made them appear into the screen and pushed the touchscreen availability towards all corners. However, there are necessary features that should be into the screen that forbid the true all-touchscreen availability on a smartphone.

What is the screen notch on a phone?

Making phones exteriors glass-only won’t save them from the bezels. Even all-glass phones have their glass panels held together via a metallic framing and each phone should at least have a camera, speaker, and a proximity sensor embedded on the front side. The design attempts to change how phones look in favor of the all-touchscreen concept have had mixed success. The best screen-to-body ratio manufacturers have managed to implement stands at around 88% of the phone’s front panel being touch-functional.

Samsung, until the generation of the Galaxy S9 and Note9, allowed for a not-touchscreen strip at the top of the phone to be where the selfie camera and a bunch of sensors resided. China phone makers Oppo, and Vivo placed a motorized camera to pop up when required and didn’t have to include much of a bezel at the top, while some companies, like Apple, packed close together at the center of the upper section of the screen the speaker, camera, and the proximity sensor to create a display cutout notch that was surrounded on three sides by screen.

What phone components are in the display notch?

There are several components that are essential to have their placement on the frontal side of the phone. The selfie camera is the prime component and in many cases, manufacturers managed to hide most of the other sensors under the display or in the narrow space between the screen and the frame. Such display cutout is often labeled as waterdrop notch.

The front speaker for calls, proximity and ambient light sensor, and sometimes additional sensors that are required for 3D face recognition get placed right on the notch. Depending on wide and deep the notch is, there may be components that are mounted on the screen cut out and have some sensors located under the glass.

Pros and cons of the notch

The primary reason why the display cutout exists in smartphones is to increase the screen real estate for the user. But having it may be itchy when viewing photos in landscape mode, watching videos, or when playing video games. A notch just starring back at you while you’re not doing that great in a game may turn energy for the frustration to build up.

Can you hide the screen notch on your phone?

OnePlus and Huawei allow the user to hide the notch from the Settings. When opting to hide the notch on any of those phones the cutout section will turn into a notifications bar and won’t be displaying anything else. You can disable the notch display on the Google Pixel 3 XL but it will turn black and won’t serve any use at all. In addition, you have the option of hiding the notch on any Android phone by installing apps from the Play Store that do just that.

Apple doesn’t allow you to hide the notch on any of its iPhone X series. There are third-party apps for iPhone that serve as notch removers and they’re basic photo editors that resize a pre-select image and add a black bar to cover the notch. While you won’t be seeing the notch on your iPhone when you unlock the phone, this notch removal won’t affect other apps and it will still be there when you go past the homepage.

Don’t want an ugly notch ‘biting’ at pictures, games, and videos being played on full screen? Here are the best phones that do not have a display notch.

Samsung Galaxy S10 / S10e / S10+

Samsung’s notch-free Galaxy S10 flagship smartphone is finally here. It has more screen, more cameras, more memory, and more of everything. It drastically decreases the size of the bezels and for the first time ever it has an in-display selfie camera. The S10 Plus actually has two front-facing selfie cameras that are mounted under the screen.

The Galaxy S10 comes in three major models. The 5.8-inch S10e, 6.1-inch standard S10, and 6.4-inch S10 Plus. There’s also the Galaxy S10 5G, a much larger phablet of 6.7-inches that has four cameras on the back and two at the front but its release date has not been announced.

All of the available-to-order versions of the Galaxy S10 sport Dynamic AMOLED of QHD+ resolution with 19:9 screen to body ratios. The S10 and S10 Plus take the lead as the top phones featuring the curved edge display. Samsung dropped curves on the edges of the 5.8-inch S10e.

All the variants of the Galaxy S10 have versions running Qualcomm’s 7nm Snapdragon 855 SoC and the 8nm Exynos 9. There are several storage models for each phone, including a high-end version of the S10+ with 12GB of RAM and 1TB of built-in local storage. Every version of the Samsung flagship ships with Android 9.0 sporting One UI overlay out of the box.

More cameras are a signature of the new Samsung Galaxy phone. The Galaxy S10 and S10 Plus have three cameras on the back. A 12MP standard camera, a 12MP telephoto sensor, and a 16MP ultrawide camera. The S10e doesn’t have a telephoto sensor but instead rocks only the 12MP and the 16MP sensors. The unreleased S10 5G might be the best camera phone made in 2019, it has the three cameras found on its other siblings and a fourth TOF sensor similar to the unit found on the Vivo Nex.

Each version of the Galaxy S10 is the current best phone for selfies. The 10MP selfie sensor found on the Galaxy S10 and S10e feature PDAF and HDR to record 4K videos. The same camera gets backed by an 8MP depth sensor on the S10 Plus to enhance selfie snaps.

The fingerprint reader on the S10 and S10 Plus is embedded beneath the glass putting an end to the fingerprint scanner on the back of Galaxy series of phones. The S10e has the fingerprint placed on the side. All the models of the new Galaxy have top-end sensors including those related to health and run on batteries with various capacities intended to make them powered through the day.

Huawei Honor Magic 2

The maker of outstanding China phones, Huawei, updated the Magic flagship of its sub-brand Honor and changed it big time. The new Honor Magic 2 does not have curves on the edges and has six cameras. Three on the back and three at the front. Honor brings back the slide function on smartphones and places the trio of front cameras along with the speaker for calls and a bunch of sensors in it to enable an entirely touchscreen-enabled display to its Magic 2 flagship. Lenovo and Xiaomi followed a similar path with the upgraded GT edition of the Z5 Pro and Mi Mix 3.

The 6.39-inch FHD display of the Honor Magic 2 eliminates the notch and brings back the slide. Its camera configuration is excellent, two 16MP standard sensors and a 24MP monochrome lens with PDAF and HDR on the back enhance photography and video recording capabilities of the device, especially when it comes to capturing images in black and white. The selfie shooters aren’t disappointing either. There is a 16MP camera that is backed by two 2MP depth-measuring sensors to alternate better 3D rendering of portrait selfies.

Magic 2 is powered by the 7nm Kirin 980 and has versions with 6GB and 8GB of RAM with 128GB and 256GB of non-extendable local memory. The phone is updated to Android 9.0 and has it overlayed with the Magic UI 2. It features Face ID and a fingerprint reader mounted under the glass. A 3,500 mAh battery is supposed to keep it powered for a day.

Asus Rog Phone

The best gaming smartphone money can buy in 2019 does not have a screen notch. That’s right. None wants to see blank sections on a screen when playing video games. An opponent player could be positioned right on that spot. Despite having a futuristic design with various geometric shapes being cut out from the back of the device, its screen remains intact from anything that could mess up the gaming experience.

The Rog phone features a 6-inch FHD AMOLED display with 90Hz refresh rate and has it protected by the 6th generation of the Corning Gorilla Glass. There’s a 12MP and 8MP dual-camera setup on the rear and an 8MP sensor at the front. HDR is supported for both cameras, and the phone captures 4K vids with the rear sensors and FHD 1080p clips with the selfie camera.

The Rog Phone is specifically built to create the best mobile gaming environment. It has side-mounted ports that won’t let those cables get in your way when holding the phone with both hands, touch-sensitive sensors on the side, and supports accessories such as a gamepad, a dock that gives you two screens and 6,000 mAh of additional power, or the possibility to stream the games straight to your 4K TV. The CPU of this phone is also cooled by an internal 3D Vapor chamber cooler or an external detachable cooler. Asus Rog Phone is also a smartphone with a headphone jack, none wants to search for the right USB-C dongle to listen to audio on wired headphones anyway.

Nokia 9 PureView

HMD Global refreshed its line of smartphones and released the first Android One phone with Snapdragon 845 and five cameras on the rear. Nokia 9 PureView is different from the most Nokia phones of 2018 as its screen has no notch and adds hardware upgrade to the line. Nokia 6, 7, and 8 editions of last year were less powerful than their predecessors. But now, Nokia finally has a phone of its own that runs Snapdragon 945 and brings something new in the industry, one phone with five cameras on one side.

The new Nokia flagship maintains a compact design and features an OLED display of 5.99-inches boasting the QHD+ resolution of 2880 x 1440 pixels. The camera setup is one of the things that makes the flagship-level Nokia phone stand. It has a total of five cameras on the back and a time-of-flight sensor. All the five sensors are of 12MP and two of them are standard cameras and three others are monochrome. The way Nokia 9 Pureview captures compelling pictures with its cameras is by making them all work together and filter out an image as large as 240MP of data and fuse them together into a 12MP of HDR image. A 20MP sensor that performs quite well is placed at the top bezel of the front side.

Nokia kept the PureView smartphone simple. It has 6GB of RAM and 128GB of non-extendable local memory. On top of that, it offers a neat Google-inspired user experience provided by the Android 9.0 Pie.

The unusually-designed Nokia 9 has glass on both sides, and it supports wireless charging. The fingerprint reader is housed beneath the display, and it has a 3,320 mAh battery for power.

Huawei Honor View 20

Huawei’s Honor redesigned View 20 has much more to offer than last-years View 10. Although last year’s View 10 is an up-to-date Android phone with a front fingerprint scanner and a physical Home key, the new View 20 belongs to a whole different concept design. It is larger, has a full touchscreen display, and it is a notch-less phone with a circular camera cutout. This is the best alternative to Samsung Galaxy S10 for anyone that’s looking for a phone that has a camera circular cutout notch, but that is not Samsung-made.

The Honor View 20 spotlights a 6.4-inch FHD LCD display and a stunning 48MP Sony IMX586 with PDAF, HDR, and has it accompanied by a TOF sensor for capturing bright 4K videos and slow-mo HD clips of up to 960 frames per second. There’s another 25MP Sony-made sensor at the front for which a cutout notch is made.

The top-tier Honor flagship runs the current-best Huawei-made Kirin 980 chipset and has it backed by 8GB of RAM and Android 9.0 with Magic UI 2 skin on the top. The local storage models of this phone include 128GB and 256GB. No microSD card is supported.

There is a fingerprint scanner on the back, a headphone jack, and a large 4,000 mAh battery to keep it supplied with sufficient power throughout the day.

Sony Xperia XZ3

Sony has been the most reluctant manufacturer regarding design adjustments on mobile phones. Sony phones have changed little over the years as trends in the outlook of phones came and went by. There’s no Sony phone with a screen notch, and most likely you won’t be seeing one such device anytime soon as the upcoming Xperia 1, the new name for the Xperia XZ4 won’t be exactly like the XZ3, but it won’t have any notch whatsoever.

Xperia XZ3 packs a compact body made of glass that is sandwiched together via an aluminum frame and rocks a 6-inch QHD+ OLED display with curves on the edges. The 19MP single-camera on the back of this phone captures compelling images and even outplays the Samsung flagship in super slow-motion video recording by capturing 1080p clips at 960 frames per second. A 13MP camera at the front does an excellent job for providing quality video chat and selfie shoots.

The current Sony flagship runs on Snapdragon 845 and has it backed by 6GB of RAM and Android 9.0 Pie version of the OS. There are only 64GB of onboard memory, but this internal space can be increased by up to 512GB via a microSD card. The fingerprint reader is placed on the back of the device, and there’s a 3,300 mAh battery for fuel that supports wireless and fast charging.

Xiaomi Mi Mix 3

Xiaomi is to be credited with the undergoing efforts by almost every major phone maker to increase the amount of touchscreen availability on phone screens. Company’s first generation of Mi Mix was a successful concept phone that has now undergone through some adjustments to highlight the concept of a phone that has almost whole of its front panel enabled for the touch.

Xiaomi dropped the bottom-mount for the selfie camera and placed it under a mechanical pop-up slider that resembles the one encountered on the Huawei Magic 2. There’s a large 6.39-inch OLED display on the Mi Mix 3 that features full HD resolution and has no cutout or notch carved into it. This handheld device equips two 12MP sensors on the rear, one of which is a telephoto sensor and it can capture slow-mo clips at 960fps at 1080p resolution. There are two selfie cameras mounted on the slider, a 24MP standard unit and a 2MP depth detection sensor.

The standard edition of the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 runs Snapdragon 845 SoC and has variants with 6GB, 8GB, and 10GB of RAM with all of them being upgraded to Android 9 with MIUI 10. Expandable memory is not supported, and there are storage variants of the Mix 3 involve 128GB and 256GB of flash storage. Xiaomi manufactured a Mi Mix 3 phone that runs Snapdragon 855 chipset, and it is one of the very few 5G phones at this time.

The only downside of the 3rd generation of Xiaomi Mix is its low-capacity battery. A 3,200 mAh battery certainly won’t be lasting you long considering the hi-end specifications and the massive screen.

Vivo Nex Dual Display

Vivo came up with an ingenious concept to design a notch-less phone. The China-based manufacturer of some of the best mid-range Android phones rebuilt the top-end Nex phone and added a second touchscreen panel onto it. Having a second display enabled Vivo to drop the secondary camera equipment for portrait selfies and video chat entirely, turning the phone in the other side will grant you with the screen to watch how your selfies are made and actually experience an enhanced video chat time. It is no secret, selfie cameras are inferior to the primary sensors in the back on almost every mobile device.

The previous design of the Vivo Nex included a motorized pop-up module that would show up to reveal the front camera. Vivo recreated the Nex phone and equipped it with a secondary 5.45-inch FHD OLED screen on the back. This grants to the 6.39-inch FHD screen on the front side a pure borderless pattern that is not interrupted by any cutting for sensors.

The redesigned Vivo flagship sports three cameras placed right above the secondary display. They are a 12MP primary Sony-made sensor, a 2MP depth detecting unit, and a time-of-flight sensor. This triple camera setup allows for 4K video recording and can be used as a front camera by simply flipping the phone to the other side.

The Nex phone with two screens is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset and has it reinforced by 10GB of RAM, 128GB of built-in non-expandable memory, and Android 9. There is support for two SIM cards, a fingerprint reader is mounted beneath the screen, and 3,500 mAh battery sets to fuel the phone through the day.

Lenovo Z5 Pro GT

Lenovo’s Z5 Pro GT outraced the Galaxy S10 as the first smartphone to be powered by the Snapdragon 855 chipset. The Lenovo Z5 Pro GT offers a clear insight into how the all-touchscreen displays look on a phone. There’s nothing to interfere with the screen, the camera, speaker, and other necessary sensors that are needed on a phone stay hidden behind the display on a slider that you can pull up whenever they are required. Such a feature is also patterned on the Huawei Magic 2.

Being powered by the new-generation Snapdragon 855 chipset with a premium variant topping 12GB of RAM and 512GB of local storage and sporting a seamless display from edge to edge, Lenovo’s Z5 Pro GT is an excellent smartphone to play games with. The standard model of this phone comes with 8GB of RAM and has versions rocking 128GB or 256GB of inbound memory. Unfortunately, the phone runs the earlier Android 8.1 version of the Android OS and has ZUI 10 skin built on top of it.

The Lenovo flagship phone sports a 6.39-inch FHD OLED screen and has two cameras on the back and two on the front. The 16MP and 24MP rear-mounted record 4K videos with the second duo of 16MP and 8MP sensors placed on the manual mechanical slider and serving as selfie snappers capture full HD videos. Both dual-camera setups have HDR, and only the back-mounted sensors have PDAF.

The fingerprint sensor is placed under the display with the handheld phone supporting infrared face recognition as an alternative for fast unlocking. It packs a 3,350 mAh battery, supports two SIM cards and NFC, and costs less than half the price of the Samsung’s Snapdragon 855-powered Galaxy S10 flagship.

LG V35 ThinQ

The LG V35 ThinQ is the only top-tier LG ThinQ phone to not have a notch cutout on the display. The V35 is a solid smartphone that isn’t either too big or too small. It houses a 6-inch high-resolution QHD OLED screen and has it protected by the 5th generation of Corning Gorilla glass.

V35 ThinQ is entirely made of glass, and it runs the Snapdragon 845 chipset with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of extendable built-in internal memory. LG is expected to release Android 9 upgrade of the OS before the end of Q1 of 2019, and there will be a custom UX interface that will be built on top of it.

A 16MP and 13MP dual-camera setup on the rear enables to it 4K video recording and an 8MP camera on the front takes care of everything selfie-related. There is a fingerprint reader on the back, a 3.5mm earphone jack, and a 3,300 mAh battery that is made to allow wireless and fast charging.

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What are the uses of the Home button on a smartphone?

The clicky Home key had various functions on both iPhone and Android. With the latter supporting function customizations via third-party apps. The most important task of it was to send you to the first home screen when any other screen or app was loaded. Holding it for an extended period of time will trigger the activation of the virtual assistant, Siri for iPhone, and Google Assistant for Android. It also required one tap to turn on a phone from sleep mode and another single tap to send it back to sleep. Besides these, the Home key could be combined with other buttons, such as the power button or volume keys to take screenshots, access recovery mode, and more.

One important feature of the clickable Home button was the hosting of a fingerprint reader. Be the circular TouchID on iPhone or the pill-shaped button on most trending Android phones, secure access to the content of the phone was provided at a fraction of a second. Squeeze your thumb in it, and the phone will instantly unlock.

Why did phones lose the Home button?

The primary reason why manufacturers dropped the physical button is related to design. The button, regardless of how tiny it becomes, it still takes space from the phone’s front view, and you just can’t have an edge-to-edge touchscreen display with it lurking about. It also is a movable part of the phone, and like any other movable part on digital products, it is prone to failure. Removing it, one thing less to worry about trashing.

The software can replace the functions of the Home button. Most Android mobiles have in-screen touch-enabled functions that serve to send you to the home screen, back, or to load the continuously running apps. Apple replaced functions of the TouchID button with swipe gestures. Samsung followed a similar path by adding the Bixby button to its newer phones that no longer sported a built-in button.

Regarding the fingerprint sensor. Not all phones had a Home button in first place. Many manufacturers released button-less Android (but not limited to) phones that did have a fingerprint sensor, the fingerprint sensor in such phones was located on the back side of the phone, and you could unlock your device by scanning your index finger in it. Samsung moved its fingerprint to the back of its flagship phones while Apple dropped it altogether and embraced face recognition as an alternative to it.

Do you need a physical Home button on your smartphone?

The Home button on mobile phones is not crucial. Thus, the button is not truly necessary on a mobile phone. The lack of the Home key doesn’t create a mess like the dropping of the headphone jack for instance. Phones with a headphone jack will spare you from the torment of struggling to find the right USB-C dongle that’s compatible to your phone to listen to music and charge the phone at the same time. But phones without the Home key do offer alternative solutions featured on the physical home button, and they work without expensive accessories.

The front-fingerprint reader on phones is not gone with the disappearance of the bottom button. Several top-tier phones such as the OnePlus 6T, Huawei Mate 20 Pro, or the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S10 or Nokia 9 PureView have the fingerprint scanner embedded under the touchscreen glass. It isn’t distinguishable and doesn’t make any sound when you tap on it, but it still is at the front.

But because you don’t really need a Home key on a smartphone does not mean that you shouldn’t have one. The Home button always looked flashy and below are the best smartphones that have it.

Huawei P20 / P20 Pro

Huawei doesn’t offer a clickable button on the P20 and P20 Pro flagship phones, but each has one that resembles it. The pill-shaped button on the Huawei P20 and P20 Pro functions as a fingerprint reader, and it also is touch-enabled to behave as a Home button by utilizing taps, long holds on it, and swipes. The button-like functions are optional. You can turn those functions on and off from the settings.

Huawei P20 and P20 Pro are the living samples of a phone sporting a FullVision screen and a Home key, the edge-to-edge touchscreen display simply can not really be from one edge to the other. Aside from the front fingerprint, P20 and P20 Pro also feature some of the best cameras on a phone. There are three Leica cameras on the P20 Pro, amongst them a 40MP sensor. P20 has two instead, and it also snaps compelling photography.

Both the 5.8-inch and 6.1-inch versions of this phone have a tiny notch on the top are powerful devices. They run the Kirin 970 chipset with a built-in NPU. The built-for-power chip deals great with AI, and it empowers both cameras of the phone, specifically the 24MP selfie sensor that’s sported on both phones to help create 3D models of your face and produce outstanding selfies.

P20 and P20 Pro both have glass panels on both sides held together by aluminum frames, support two SIM cards, and are available in various colors and storage models.

iPhone 8 / 8 Plus

iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are the last members of the Apple iPhone series to house the iconic circular Home key and a fingerprint reader. The Home key-mounted fingerprint sensor that Apple made go places with the iPhone 5S was to be dismissed on future flagships. Apple rushed in to embrace the all-touchscreen display on a mobile phone, it replaced the fingerprint with face recognition and added the screen notch to its flagship handset.

iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are also the last powerful iPhone devices to sport the classic iPhone design. They are the last 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch Apple phones to have no screen notch and not have their whole display touchscreen-enabled. They are as powerful as the iPhone X and do run the latest version of the iOS.

iPhone 8 has only one 12MP sensor while the 8 Plus has two 12MP camera units on the back that are still amongst the best cameras on a mobile device. There’s a standard 7MP selfie shooter on both versions of the iPhone 8. These are the first iPhone members to have glass panels on both sides with their screens being FHD retina units. Later iPhones have a higher concentration of pixels. These two iPhones are the best options for iPhone fans that want to retain the front-fingerprint reader without moving to Android.

Xiaomi Black Shark

The Black Shark is an appealing and affordable gaming phone that features a water-cooling system, sports a combination of classic outlook mixed with futuristic gaming patterns, and a physical home key. It actually is the only Snapdragon 845-powered phone to retain the physical Home button.

Xiaomi Black Shark sports a premium gaming outfit to satisfy gamers need for flashy equipment. It has a metal and glass body, topped with strips of customizable RGB lights. There are series of connected LEDs that flash in the back of the phone with the Shark logo flashing in the center.

Xiaomi’s Black Shark phone dedicated to high-end games runs the Snapdragon 845 SoC backed by 8GB of RAM and has its overall gaming experience enhanced via the built-in Pixelworks image processing chipset. It has 128GB of non-expandable memory. The 10GB of RAM version of this phone is called Black Shark Halo, but it has no Home key at the front. With the exception of design, both models share the very same hardware and software.

Regarding other feature supports, Xiaomi’s gaming phone concept features a 5.99-inch FHD LCD screen. It has a 12MP and 20MP dual-camera setup on the back with HDR and PDAF for 4K video recording and a 20MP selfie snapper at the front. It supports NFC, two SIM cards, and gets the fuel from a 4,000 mAh battery.

Huawei Honor View 10

Aside from the top-dollar P20 and P20 Pro, Huawei has in its index a budget flagship killer phone that also sports a physical Home button below the screen. This handset is the Honor View 10, a powerful Android device with a lot of memory, sleek design, and an earphone jack that you no longer find on every Huawei phone.

Honor View 10 features a 5.99-inch FHD LCD display that sits on top of its metal body. It has two cameras on the back, a 16MP primary sensor and a black and white 20MP monochrome camera. The Honor phone can record 4K videos but what it can do best is capture black and white photos. There’s a 13MP sensor at the front that has you covered for selfies and video chat.

The Kirin 970 backing this premium Android smartphone from China still is one of the most advanced mobile processors made to date. Honor View 10 has 6GB of RAM with 128GB of internal storage standing behind its powerful chip and the Android 9.0 version of the OS with EMUI 9.0 overlay. Huawei somehow managed to fit a 3,750 mAh battery into a phone that measures a thickness of only 7.5mm.

The post Best phones with a physical Home button and front fingerprint sensor appeared first on Gadget Detected - News, Reviews, Specs, and Deals on all Smartphone devices.

It is no secret that many phone brands, especially the new ones coming from China attempt to produce look-a-like iPhone devices. They even copied iPhone’s screen notch although it is ugly and doesn’t add any value to the phone. Phones that in a list of missing things included the 3.5mm stereo jack flooded the market.

Apple’s decision to drop the 3.5mm headphone jack was due to the company’s belief that the future is wireless audio and to add more waterproofness to the iPhone. However, this stand is not shared by every mobile phone producer. Some believed that the earphone connector made phones thicker than they should be or that it doesn’t go well with the edge-to-edge touchscreen displays. However, these are not true. The iPhone 7 is not thinner than the iPhone 6, and during that time, all-touchscreen display phones were not really a thing.

Regardless. What is worth noting is that the transition from mobile phones with the headphone to those without it has not been as smooth as intended. Wireless audio is not as good as the cable audio and those Bluetooth earbuds, regardless of how good-looking they are, they come with batteries of their own and require to be charged too. The alternative to Bluetooth and analog audio to replace the jack plug experience became the new USB-C audio. USB-C things and problems with them are the reason why the jack plug might have found its self a stronghold at Samsung and few other phone producers that either remain resilient to not let the 3.5mm headphone jack go or release versions of their phones having it.

Practical problems when the phone has no earphone jack

There are technical and practical issues that came up with the phones that lack the traditional 3.5mm earphone jack. The current alternatives to it are the Bluetooth headphones and earbuds that stream music from your phone wirelessly via Bluetooth and USB-C earbuds.

Wireless earphones cost more than standard wired units, and they require to be charged regularly to function. As USB-C phones have only one port, you cannot listen to music on your earbuds while your phone is being charged. It is a choice that makes USB-C audio impractical for use on mobile phones. While you can have this problem partially fixed with the iPhone Lightning Dock, the experience on having an Android without the 3.5mm audio jack is far more frustrating.

Manufacturers that made jack-less Android phones like Huawei, do include a USB-C to 3.5mm audio jack adapter but it has only one output. Forbidding listening to music and charging at the same time and giving space to a user-hostile environment far more unforgiving than the one iPhone users face.

The best option for anyone that wants to charge and listen to music at the same time on their Android phone that has no headphone jack is the 2 in 1 USB-C cable made by Sony. There are other similar adapters on Amazon, but the ratings aren’t that good. Some users report them not being compatible with every Android.

USB-C is not universal and this why your USB-C adapter probably doesn’t work

Despite being universal is in the name of the USB Type-C, you can’t plug in anything USB-C into your phone. You actually can, but it won’t work. The thing is, sound content on any mobile phone is in a digital form, and a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) is required to decode the sound stored as digital signals into analog audio. The DAC then sends the converted audio to an amplifier, which, in turn, sends music to your headphones.

Many of the USB-C dongles don’t actually have a built-in DAC in them and rely on the phone’s DAC to make the conversion from digital audio to analog for the headphones to be able to play them. A phone that does not have the jack plug will almost always connect with Type-C dongles that have a DAC on them but may not work with those without it. There are also many phones with USB-C and the headphone jack, such phones will do work with digital USB-C dongles but will not connect to analog dongles. Although phones do have a DAC of their own, manufacturers are not obliged to convert digital audio to USB-C, and they often choose not to do it.

Dongles don’t seem to fix all the problems surrounding USB-C audio even when they do work perfectly fine. That’s probably why Samsung isn’t giving up on the old headphone jack yet. If you don’t want to have a full box of cables to listen to music on your phone and charge it, here are the best phones that have the old headphone jack.

Samsung Galaxy S9 / Galaxy S9+

Despite being upgraded with the Galaxy S10 in a few days, Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ remain to be two of the most thoroughgoing Android smartphones. It comes in a compact 5.8-inch version and a large 6.2-inch Plus model that has more memory and two cameras on the back that enhance its photography performance.

Both models of the Galaxy S9 boast enthralling AMOLED screens featuring HDR 10, the quad-HD resolution that skyrockets the pixel density at up to 570 pixels per inch. The best phones sporting curved edge screens they have no annoying notch. There is a built-in 3D touch that serves as a Home button function.

The performance on the S9 is outstanding. Snapdragon 845 chipset that powers the Samsung flagship of 2018 has 4GB of RAM on the standard S9 and 6GB on the S9+. The Android 9.0 Marshmallow with One UI making its debut cover the user experience and compatibility to the latest Android apps and games. Storage versions for both devices include 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB with each of them supporting expandable memory of up to 512GB via microSD.

With the Galaxy S9, you get one of the best single-camera 12MP sensors while if you are opting for the larger S9+, there is a second 12MP telephoto sensor that captures even better photos. There is a bunch of sensors coming with the Samsung phones that help make your life easier. A rear-mounted fingerprint that reportedly won’t be succeeded by the Galaxy S10. There are a heart rate and the SpO2 sensors which measure the level of oxygen in the blood. Samsung equips you with health-related sensors you may expect to find on a fitness smartwear, not on a smartphone.

Regarding audio, Samsung has been resilient to drop the headphone jack with its flagship phones continuing it along the USB 3.1 and USB-C. You can listen to music with every earbuds type with the Samsung phone without having to purchase expensive accessories. Standard, Bluetooth, and USB-C headsets will all work perfectly fine, just plug them in or connect to them and you’re good to go.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9

Galaxy Note9, one of the finest mobile phones at this time, in its extensive list of feature supports includes the 3.5mm jack plug. The Samsung beast sports a 6.4-inch Quad HD AMOLED Infinity display that has no notch, curves on both edges, and enables to you the gates to a new whole touchscreen world via the Stylus Pen.

Two 12MP sensors on the back that although seemingly the same on paper to the units found on the Galaxy S9+ are actually capable of outperforming it by capturing brighter pictures and clearer high-resolution videos. No smartphone becomes an excellent photography phone without a high-quality selfie sensor. The 8MP selfie camera on the Note9 is one of the few to record 4K videos.

Note 9 also is amongst the most powerful handsets out there. Its Snapdragon 845 processor is backed by 6GB and 8GB of RAM with 128GB and 512GB of models. Both of which support memory expansion and run Android 9.0 Pie with One UI skin built on top of it.

There are slots for two SIM cards and various ways to securely access the phablet including Iris scanner and the rear fingerprint. A 4,000 mAh battery that supports fast charging and wireless charging and the same health-related sensors found on the Galaxy S9 and S9+.

Just like with almost every Samsung phone, you don’t have to worry whether the headphones will be compatible with your phone. With the Galaxy Note9 has the 3.5mm jack plug for standard wired earphones and can connect to wireless and USB-C headsets as well.

Asus Rog Phone

Good news for hardcore gamers. The most powerful mobile phone to play games with, Asus Rog Phone, does come with the 3.5mm jack. The marvel of a gaming phone Asus made brings a futuristic design inspired by the ROG series of gaming devices unseen in smartphones before. The 6-inch OLED FHD screen of it has a refresh rate of 90Hz, features HDR, and a wide color gamut to provide blur-free visuals when experiencing the world of video games.

To enable long-lasting gameplay, the Snapdragon 845 chipset powering the handset that has 8GB of RAM and versions with either 128GB or 512GB, Asus equipped the Rog phone with an internal vapor chamber cooler, and if that doesn’t get the CPU cooled fast, you can attach the clip-on AeroActive cooler. A cooling fan whose parameters you can control via a dedicated application. The upgrade to Android 9.0 version of the OS lets this handset compatible with every app and game. The ROG Gaming X UI that’s built over the operating system makes it stand out as a phone that’s specifically dedicated to playing games.

There’s a relatively large battery of 4,000 mAh to keep the Rog phone going throughout the day. For those that can’t get enough of playtime, the TwinView pedestal adds another 6,000 mAh of power to it. Some other accessories that enhance the gaming experience on this phone are the Gamevice gamepad to play games using mechanical buttons like on any gamepad and the WiGig Dock, a WiFi-based dock that enables videogame streaming or other content on a TV.

Having the jack highlights the Rog phone. Its closest competitor, the Razer Phone 2 does not have one for instance.

Huawei Mate 20 / Mate 20 X

Huawei Mate 20-series of premium handsets are amongst the best phones from China money can buy. There are various models of the Mate 20 for you to pick up. The Mate 20 and Mate 20 X are the two top-end versions of it to sport a teardrop screen and come equipping the 3.5mm jack.

The Mate 20 X is a massive smartphone. It comes with a huge dewdrop FHD OLED screen where the position of selfie camera creates a tiny oval notch that looks like a water drop. Mate 20 X with the triple Leica-lens sensors on the back that include a 40MP, 20MP, and 8MP sensor each featuring PDAF and up to five-time optical zoom makes a perfect smartphone for photography. The same camera setup can be stumbled upon the Mate 20 Pro. The Mate 20 has a rather lighter performance where its trio of cameras are 12MP, 16MP, and 8MP. The selfie camera for them both is the same 24MP unit. Although both of these handsets snap stunning images, the sensors on the Mate 20 X perform better.

Although smaller of the two, the standard Mate 20 is larger than the Mate 20 Pro. Its FHD LCD display of 6.53-inches is amongst the largest on a mobile phone.

Both these two phones run the HiSilicon Kirin 980 chipset that does wonders with its AI and have it backed by 6GB of RAM and 128GB of extendable internal memory. There’s Android 9.0 Pie version of the OS with EMUI 9 skin built on top of it. They both get powered with batteries whose respective capacities are of 4,000 mAh and 5,000 mAh, support fast charging, and have rear-mounted fingerprint readers.

HTC U12+

HTC’s flagship from mid-2018 remains to be an excellent device that has top-notch performance, excellent cameras, side buttons that improve gaming experience, and that proudly sports the 3.5mm jack.

The 6-inch LCD screen on the HTC U12 Plus is amongst the brightest units on a mobile phone. It rocks the QHD+ resolution that sends the pixel density up to 537 pixels per inch. Dual camera setups of a 12MP and 16MP on the back and two 8MP sensors at the front make this phone a perfect choice of a camera phone. With the cameras on the back, it can record 4K and slow-mo HD clips at 240 frames per second and with its front units selfies are bright, and videos are taken at full HD resolution.

The housed Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor backed by 6GB of RAM and Android 9 exhibits its powerful performance. There are variants with 64GB and 128GB of free space of this particular device. Internal storage is expandable by up to 512GB for every model.

HTC equipped its flagship with pressure-sensitive side buttons that are useful during gameplay and a fingerprint reader placed on the back glass. A 3,500 mAh battery that allows fast charging is expected to keep it on for an entire day, and there is a headphone jack to listen to music via wired headphones.

LG V40 ThinQ / G7 ThinQ

LG is another major mobile phone maker that refuses to let the jack go. LG has two high-end devices belonging to the ThinQ line of smart products that are worthy of the top dollar. The G7 ThinQ and the V40 ThinQ smartphone with five cameras.

The G7 ThinQ boasts a 6.1-inch QHD LCD screen whose pixel density stands at 564 pixels per each square inch with the V40 ThinQ having an OLED display of the same resolution but larger, measuring 6.4-inches diagonally. Both phones have a notch at the top-center where the cameras and the infrared sensors stay put and are protected by the 5th generation of Corning Gorilla Glass.

There are two 16MP cameras on the G7 ThinQ with two 12MP sensors and another 16MP unit being placed on the V40 ThinQ. The 8MP sensor of the G7 gets improved on the V40 ThinQ and is helped by another 5MP ultrawide sensor to take brighter selfies and better video chat. Both flagships can record 4K videos with their rear cameras and Full HD clips with the front-mounted units.

They also run the same Snapdragon 845 chipset made by Qualcomm. The V40 has 6GB of RAM with models having 64GB and 128GB of internal storage capacity. G7 has 4GB and 6GB of RAM with storage versions having 64GB and 128GB memory. Expandable memory is supported for both phones, and they are both set to receive Android Pie OS update.

The LG V40 and G7 also have fingerprint sensors located on the back, run on 3,300 mAh and 3,000 mAh batteries that are enabled for fast charging and to be charged wirelessly, and have an IP68 certification for resisting to dust and water.

Vivo Nex Dual Display

Vivo has updated its flagship-level Nex phone with a new Vivo Nex that offers two screens at your disposal. It isn’t the first phone to have two screens, ZTE tried something similar with the Axon M, and Meizu’s Pro 7 has a second screen on the side of its back. But none of them was comparable to the beast of a smartphone Vivo made with the redesigned Nex.

For starters. Vivo Nex boasts a 6.39-inch screen that is FullVision and has no notch in it and equips a second display on the back that is of 5.49-inches. Both screens are OLED panels featuring full HD resolution and are touch-enabled. The second screen is not there just to make this phone have two displays. It has been custom-designed to have functions of its own. For instance, when you receive a message or notification while watching videos or playing games, you can turn around the phone to view the notification or respond to messages on the back screen. Regarding games, Vivo enhances the gaming experience on the new Nex phone that has two screens by allowing the screen on the rear to turn into a touch-enabled gamepad.

The new Vivo Nex packs quite a punch with its Snapdragon 845 SoC that’s backed by a whopping of 10GB of RAM. Need a smartphone with a lot of RAM? Vivo has just that. The phone has 128GB of non-expandable memory and runs Android 9 with FunTouch 4.5 skin on top.

The new Nex phone does not need cameras on both sides. Selfie and video chat is provided via the primary triple cameras on the back, and they are quite impressive. The 12MP Sony sensor on the back with a large pixel size of 1.44µm, a 4-axis OIS and PDAF has a 2MP depth-measuring sensor and a third time-of-flight (ToF) 3D camera that captures realistic photography and eases the function of facial recognition for unlocking the device. One thing this phone will be doing better than its competitors are selfies and the quality of video chat.

There’s a non-removable battery with a capacity of 3,500 mAh and quick charge to keep the phone going. It also has a fingerprint reader embedded under the display, supports two SIM cards, and brings hope to the continuation of the 3.5mm jack plug by featuring it.

ZTE Nubia Red Magic / Red Magic Mars

ZTE’s subsidiary Nubia offers an alternative phone for games that rocks a futuristic design showcasing that it is made specifically for hardcore gamers but that costs less than average mid-tier phones. There are two versions of this phone, the Nubia Red Magic and Red Magic Mars edition, they look and are identical to each other with the exception of cameras where each phone has different sensors, with the Mars edition having the better unit and the same model having 10GB of RAM.

Both Nubia gaming phones feature 6.0-inch FHD LCD screens that are touchscreen-enabled from edge to edge and have no notch in them and have it protected by the durable Dinorex T2X-1 glass, and run the Snapdragon 835 and Snapdragon 845 chipsets. The models of the Red Magic run Snapdragon 835 and have 6GB and 8GB of RAM with 64GB and 128GB of respective memory. Only the Nubia Red Magic Mars has a 10GB of RAM with 256GB of storage model and has every variant of it housing the Snapdragon 845. Expandable memory is not supported for any of the variants of the phone. The standard Nubia Red Magic comes with Android 8.1 out of the box with the Red Magic Mars equipping Android 9. A custom gaming UX named Nubia Red Magic UI makes both these phones stand out.

A 24MP camera is placed on the back of the Red Magic with a 16MP sensor coming with the Red Magic Mars that has it in the very same spot. Beneath the primary cameras that can record videos at 4K resolution stands a fingerprint reader with a customizable RGB light strip being placed under the camera. An 8MP sensor at the front takes over video chat and selfie-related tasks.

Both Nubia gaming flagship mobiles run on batteries having capacities of 3,800 mAh and that are wireless-charging ready. They also support two SIM cards, house a 3.5mm jack socket, and are excellent devices for the price. Use AFFRMM20 coupon to get a $20 off the price.

Nokia 8.1

Nokia downgraded its flagship handset by dropping the plans to equip the latest processor Qualcomm packed up for top-tier mobiles and opted in for a cheaper alternative, an Android One phone that operates the latest version of the OS but runs a mid-tier chip, the Snapdragon 710.

If you want to have Nokia’s top dog that is expected to take over the world with its six cameras waiting for a few more days until the MWC 2019 event where the Nokia 9 PureView is expected to be introduced will be worthwhile. But, it won’t have the headphone jack and your best options to a Nokia phone with a headphone jack will be either the Nokia 8 or the Android One Nokia 8.1.

It is no secret. Nokia 8 of late 2017 is better than the Nokia 8.1 of 2018. It has excellent cameras, particularly the 13MP sensor at the front that can snap 2160p videos and it also is one of the best mobile phones with a Home button out there. Nokia 8.1 brings in the edge-to-edge touchscreen functionality that grants it a notch on top of the large 6.18-inch LCD panel. It sports a Zeiss-made dual-camera setup that includes a 12MP and a 13MP sensor for recording 4K videos and a 20MP sensor at the front for selfie-snapping.

The standard edition of the Nokia 8.1 has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of free space that can be extended via a microSD card. However, there is a premium edition of it with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal memory if empty storage is never sufficient to you. A 3,500 mAh battery should keep it going for quite some time considering that Android One is lighter than standard Android OS. The fingerprint mounted on the back will allow speedy and secure access to the phone.

Xiaomi Pocophone F1

One of the most awesome mobile phones with a headphone jack is Xiaomi’s high-performing affordable smartphone, Pocophone F1. This phone that sells for a little budget and rocks the same processor top-tier mobiles have, the Snapdragon 845, has excellent cameras, the latest version of the Android operating system, face recognition, and excellent battery life.

Xiaomi’s low-cost flagship killer spotlights a 6.18-inch FHD screen with a notch and has its display protected by Corning Gorilla Glass. A duo of a 12MP and a 5MP camera on its back capture impressive imagery. Poco F1 packs a 20MP camera with HDR at the front for selfie addicts.

Despite selling for a relatively low budget, Poco F1 phone rocks the best mobile processor at this time, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 powerhouse and it has it backed by 6GB of RAM and 8GB of RAM. The storage versions of this device come with 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB for the 8GB of RAM model. The phone is upgraded to Android 9 and has the Poco edition of the MIUI 10.2 skin built over it.

Poco F1 has almost everything you need in a premium smartphone. It features a fingerprint reader and face recognition for instant unlock, and has a large battery having a capacity of 4,000 mAh to keep it powered through the day.

In case you want a phone that has the headphone jack, but you find the Poco phone to be too expensive for you, take a look at the Android Go phones priced at $100 or less. They also have the 3.5mm audio jack.

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The standard Samsung flagship plus a curved edge edition was continued with the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, after it, beginning with the Galaxy S8, all the flagship mobiles from Samsung came with curves on both edges of their screens and differed from each other primarily by size.

What is a curved display on a phone and what it does?

The prime purpose of the curves on the screen of a smartphone is more for aesthetic reasons than function. There sure are some usability functions on the curved edges of Samsung phones. The edges have their own panel and lightning. Its panel can be activated by swiping and tapping on the side to view notifications, access the Edge apps that include five most frequently used applications of yours, and some other small gestures. But, isn’t that the usability of a curved phone screen will make your life easier. One of the functions of it might not even be useful at all, the function that displays the caller id on the side when the phone is facing down, it isn’t a wise idea to place your expensive Samsung phone face-down, its screen may get scratched.

Edge has been a selling point for Samsung. Curves on the screen give to the phone a border-less appearance by minimizing the sight to the side bezels. This futuristic vibe makes the device look prettier and fancier. But that’s not all, due to the curvature, such phones make it easier to hold them, and as the edge is part of the screen, they are more compact than a flat-screen counterpart.

Phones with edge display look good from an aesthetic point, and there is no doubt about that. The glass and steel integrate together in such a way that the phone appears to not have bounds on its glass panel. Besides having a great-looking phone that is easier to hold when compared to a regular handheld, isn’t that you can do much with the dual edge curves on a phone.

What is the best dual edge phone?

Nowhere else do the curved edges on a smartphone screen look as good as on a Samsung Galaxy S9/S9+ or the Galaxy Note9. But if you are looking for a phone with curved edges but that is not made by Samsung, you’re not left without options. The best alternative to it obviously is the Huawei Mate 20 Pro. One of the all-around best mobiles phones money can buy at this time. Numerous brands have joined the curved-edge phone screen frenzy, such as LG, Sony, Nokia, Oppo, and more.

During 2016 and 2017 almost every major and not-that-popular mobile phone producer released a phone having curved edges. However, these phones were either abandoned or continued without the edge, and their manufacturers opted for later technology trends such as the screen notch or the edge-to-edge touchscreen display. They are obsolete devices now and mentioning them in this phone listing is of no value.

Samsung Galaxy S9 / Galaxy S9+

Samsung’s Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus undoubtedly are the two phones where the dual-edge curves best. The 5.8-inch and 6.2-inch HDR-enabled AMOLED screens on these two handsets are amongst the brightest and compelling displays on a smartphone. The Quad-HD resolution numbering 1440 x 2960 pixels raise the pixel density at a fascinating 570 pixels per inch on the Galaxy S9. The S9+ has a lower pixel density of 529PPI on its display due to the larger size. Both phones have a 3D touch function that replaces the former Home button and its functions.

The Edge screen is a Samsung signature and it is on its phones where it has the most usability features. With just a swipe on the screen, you can access notifications, the weather forecast mobile app, or the App Pair, a feature found on the Galaxy Note 8 and later phones that let you open two apps at the same time on your Android.

A drawback on phones having an edge screen was that they didn’t offer much protection from the water. Both these Samsung cell phones have an IP68 rating. This rating guarantees that the device can survive a submerge at a depth of 1.5m of water for half an hour. This, however, doesn’t mean that you can swim with the phone in your pocket and not care about it, but raindrops, sweat, or wet fingers won’t cause any damage to it.

The dual cameras on the Galaxy S9+ are amongst the best cameras on a smartphone. Period. The S9, unfortunately, does not have two cameras. Its 12MP single camera still manages to take captivating images and record videos at 4K resolution. Anyway, if you were to choose amongst the two solely for the cameras, the dual 12MP sensors on the S9 Plus offer the better performance.

Specs of these two devices are the same. Both have versions running the Snapdragon 845 and Exynos 9810 with 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB of memory. Galaxy S9 has 4GB of RAM while the Galaxy S9 Plus has 6GB, the dual-sim versions support microSD of up to 512GB.

Batteries with 3,000 mAh and 3,500 mAh of respective capacities power these two phones up. They are made to keep the devices going for one day and support wireless charging and fast charging. There is a fingerprint reader on the back, the 8MP camera at the front that can snap hypnotic selfies and record videos at 1440p that also serves as an Iris scanner, a heart rate sensor, and support for contactless payments via Samsung Pay. Samsung hasn’t given up on the headphone jack yet, and you get that too with these devices.

Samsung Galaxy Note9

The best smartphone featuring Stylus Pen also has the best screen curves on the edges of a mobile phone. The Galaxy Note 9 features a mesmerizing AMOLED display of 6.4-inches with Quad HD resolution and the iconic curved edge that this phone series made popular. The Galaxy Note9 looks more like a larger version of the Galaxy S9 and S9+ with only the corners on the two being slightly more round than the ones on the Note9. With little to no design changes, you are offered a larger phone plus the S pen and its uses.

Although the Galaxy S9+ and the Note9 have the same cameras on paper, the Note9 actually outperforms it. Selfie and video performance should be identical to that of the Galaxy S9 or S9+. The Note9 has more power and makes a slightly better-performing gaming phone. It runs the Snapdragon 845 chipset with 6GB and 8GB of RAM with 128GB and 512GB of onboard memory for each respective model. The dual-SIM versions of it support memory expansion by up to 512GB more.

Just like other wireless charging-enabled phones, the Note9 has its body built by two bright glass panels that are kept sandwiched together via an aluminum frame. It is also IP68-certified for its durability against dust and water and gets powered by a 4,000 mAh battery that also supports fast charging.

The Note9 brings top-notch connectivity features such as a rear-mounted fingerprint reader, Iris scanner, and the health-related sensors to measure your heart rate or pulse oximetry. To get more data regarding your physical activity or general wellbeing, pairing your Note9 with Samsung Galaxy Watch will enrich the data appearing on the built-in health app, Samsung Health. This phone will work on any smartwatch compatible with Android, but Samsung’s own watch seems to be the more appropriate choice.

With the Galaxy Note9, you also receive support to listen to music via wired headphones and one of the best and most secure Android smartphones ever made.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro

Huawei Mate 20 Pro is the ultimate China phone. It has no rival for its power and photography features. The Mate 20 is a close-by runner up, and it is almost as good as the Pro version but its screen has round and not curved edges, and it is excluded from this listing.

Huawei’s beast phone features a large AMOLED display of 6.39-inches with 1440 x 3120 pixels resolution. The Chinese designer of premium cell phones added more pixels to this phone to maintain an extremely high pixel density of 538 pixels per inch. This phone runs the HiSilicon Kirin 980 processor, world’s first 7nm chipset that preserves power 32% better and has a 37% better performance than the Snapdragon 845. Besides being almost one generation ahead of Qualcomm, the chip on the Huawei flagship also has 4MB of shared L3 cache to keep the cores well-fed, this is twice the amount of cache found on the Snapdragon 845.

A top-powerful processor is not the only or the prime selling note this phone has. Its cameras are outstanding. A trio of Leica-made sensors includes a 40MP, 20MP, and 8MP where each has PDAF and laser autofocus of its own to deliver breathtaking 4K video recording and high-resolution photoshoots. A 20MP HDR-enabled sensor on the front that sits on a screen notch will take the best-possible quality selfies a phone of this era can capture.

The memory in this handset is out of limits as well. There are versions of it having 6GB and 8GB of RAM with models having 128GB and 256GB of expandable onboard storage. Android 9 Pie with EMUI 9 skin built on top of it covers the user interface.

The fingerprint reader is embedded under the glass, and there is support for Face ID as well. Mate 20 Pro runs a large 4,000 Mah battery with wireless charging and fast charging support. Its fast charging technology is so good that it takes only 30 minutes to have its battery charged to 70 percent. There is no earphone jack socket on it while there is NFC for contactless payments and IP68 certification for its durability against dust and water. If you don’t mind spending, there is a Porsche Design edition of the Huawei mate 20 Pro.

Sony Xperia XZ3

Sony, a veteran smartphone designer, doesn’t like to rush things over. The Japanese manufacturer and its Xperia line of devices include top-tier and midrange devices which are updated once a year and rank amongst the top quality Android devices on each of the segments they belong to.

The 6-inch P-Oled screen on the Sony Xperia XZ3 features a resolution of 1440 x 2880 pixels that takes pixel density up to 537 pixels per inch. To highlight and improve viewing of films and other video content on its flagship phone, Sony equips its phone with HDR and X-Reality engine that adds clarity to each image. The phone is compact, and it does have an Edge screen too.

The phone continues the single-camera setup, and its 19MP primary sensor can record 4K videos. There is a 13MP sensor at the front that has HDR and electronic image stabilization and can take stunning selfies. This premium phone made by Sony runs the current-best Snapdragon 845 chipset and has variants with 4GB and 6GB of RAM with the onboard memory sitting at them both at 64GB. A microSD can extend the availability of storage by up to 512GB. Android 9.1 Pie tops up its up-to-date functionalities, security, and app supports.

This phone does not support the headphone jack. It gets the power from a wireless charging-enabled 3,300 mAh battery. It features NFC for wireless payments and sports a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor.

Huawei Mate RS Porsche Design

The Porsche Design Huawei Mate RS, a tribute to the Porsche RS car, shares most of its internal hardware with the Huawei P20 and P20 Pro, the best phones to keep the physical Home button, but sports a completely different concept design. It has no Home button on the front, its screen does not have an annoying notch in it, and its triple Leica cameras are placed on the middle of its backside in a vertical line that ends with the fingerprint reader.

The 6-inch QHD screen on the Huawei Mate RS Porsche Design boasts a pixel density of 538 pixels per inch and has ravishing curves on both its edges. The beautifully-crafted RS Porsche Edition of this Huawei Mate phone has an in-glass fingerprint reader and a regular fingerprint sensor in the back. It is water and dust resistant too but fragile against dropping.

It packs quite a punch regarding power. The Kirin 970 Chipset that can be found on the Huawei P20 Pro is on the same range with the Snapdragon 845 and deals even better with AI-related tasks. The 6GB of onboard RAM combined with 256GB and 512GB of built-in memory along with the upgrade to Android 9 Pie grant to it top-notch performance and compatibility to the latest Android games and apps.

The cameras on this Porsche Design Huawei phone are the same 40MP, 20MP, and 8MP sensors on the back and the 24MP selfie snapper at the front that you can find on the Huawei P20 Pro with an equal photography performance. This phone knows little to no competition when it comes to snapping high-resolution photos or recording 4K videos. It also is an outstanding selfie phone.

There is a 4,000 mAh that is not changeable on the back of the Mate RS Porsche Design to keep it powered throughout the day with the support of Qi wireless charging and fast charging. It supports two SIM cards and NFC for contactless payments.

Oppo Find X

The China-based Oppo known primarily for its quality affordable Android cell phones can make top-tier devices as well. Its Find X has the looks and internal components that enable it to go head-on against any other device.

Oppo Find X sports a captivating design that includes two panels of Corning Gorilla Glass 5 pieces sandwiched together via a slim and barely-visible aluminum frame with a full HD AMOLED display that has curves on both of its edges. The screen of it has no notch and the selfie camera is embedded on a motorized pop-up module that appears whenever you need it. By utilizing the motorized module technology for the front camera, Oppo managed to maintain the touchscreen in almost the whole of the front panel.

The top-tier performance on the Oppo flagship is provided by the Snapdragon 845 SoC together with a whopping of 8GB of RAM and Android 9. There are models with 128GB and 256GB of storage, microSD card is not supported. The motorized module holds the 16MP primary camera that along a second 20MP sensors that is embedded within the back side of the phone can take 4K videos. The same module holds the 25MP HDR-enabled sensor for full HD video chat and high-resolution selfie shooting.

There are two versions of the Oppo Find X, the Oppo Find X Super Flash edition gets powered by a 3,400 mAh that gets fully charged in 35 minutes by utilizing the company’s flash charging technology and the standard edition that takes a little more to charge but has a larger capacity battery of 3,700 mAh. There is no headphone jack, but there is support for two SIM cards and NFC.

Nokia 8 Sirocco

The New Nokia has brought some excellent worthwhile upper-midrange mobile phones. Nokia 8 Sirocco is one of them. This premium cell phone is compact, and its QHD AMOLED display measures only 5.5 inches. Pixels are stuffed together at a ratio of 534 pixels per inch, and there are curves on both sides of the display panel. The glass body design on both of its sides and a shining stainless steel frame grant it a compelling outlook.

The Nokia 8 Sirocco comes with last-generation Snapdragon 835 chipset under the hood that is backed by six gigs of RAM and 128 gigs of onboard memory. It is the current best phone to run Android One, and it is upgraded to the latest Android 9 Pie version of the OS. The upgrade is necessary for the device to remain relevant and that is one of the reasons that earns it a place in this roundup.

Photography-related features on the Nokia 8 Sirocco are at a satisfactory level. The duo of a 12MP and 13MP of Zeiss sensors enable it to record 4K videos while the 5MP camera at the front with a large pixel sensor of 1.4µm lets you take excellent selfies and full HD video chat.

There are single-SIM and dual-SIM versions of Nokia 8 Sirocco. It has a back-mounted fingerprint, NFC,  and gets powered by a 3,260 mAh battery with Quick Charge 4.0 and wireless charging support.

LG V30S+ ThinQ

LG has not been a major fan of the edge screens on a smartphone, but it still made phones having both edges curved. The top dog of such LG phones is the V30S ThinQ and its premium version with 256GB that is known as the V30S+ ThinQ.

The Lg V30S ThinQ has an excellent 6-inch QHD OLED display that boasts a pixel density of 537PPI, and that has no ugly notch in it. The phone is quite attractive with both sides of it being crafted by the durable Corning Gorilla Glass 5 that are sandwiched together by an aluminum framing. The curves grant to it a borderless outlook on top of its FullVision display.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 with 6GB of RAM and 128GB and 256GB of expandable memory with Android 8.0 Oreo keep it relevant and maintain its powerfulness. A 16MP plus 13MP dual camera setup on the rear and a 5MP sensor at the front are all it brings for photos and videos. There is 4K video recording support via the cameras on the back but don’t expect anything you can’t find on other flagship devices.

There is a 3,300 mAh battery with quick charge technology and also supports wireless charging for power. A fingerprint reader on the back enables quick access, NFC for fast contactless mobile payments and other data sharing, and it does come with the jack socket embedded into the device.

Meizu Zero

Meizu Zero is a new concept phone that has no physical buttons and ports. If phones that dropped the headphone jack were a disappointment for you, then this phone that doesn’t have even a USB port will certainly not impress you. Although Meizu claims that its phone comes from the future where the wires are no longer must-have accessories, the truth is that the USB port is not used only to charge the device but also to connect fast to any computer device.

Meizu Zero doesn’t look bad. It actually looks quite good in its ceramic body craft with an AMOLED screen featuring full HD resolution and curves on both its edges. It has no ports and no buttons. It doesn’t even have traditional speakers. Instead of them, the phone uses a piezoelectric transducer that comes branded as the mSound 2.0 to play the role. It has an IP68 certification that tells it is resistant to dust and water and Meizu keeps mentioning it as a revolutionary achievement, something that it is not. Most of the phones that sport a similar design to this Meizu phone do have ports and buttons and probably would beat Meizu’s flagship in a competition about durability and resistance.

Meizu Zero will come only as an e-SIM phone too. It has decent hardware, a Snapdragon 845 and 4GB and 6GB of RAM with 64GB and 128GB of respective onboard storage with Android 9 on top. Storage is another segment where Meizu seems to disappoint. It appears to have a dual-camera setup on the rear consisting of a 12MP and 20MP camera and a 20MP selfie sensor on the front. There also is an embedded fingerprint under the screen and the only way to charge the phone is via an 18W wireless charger that will be sold with the phone when it launches.

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What is Android Go?

Android Go is a lightweight version of the Android operating system that is designed to run on phones with underpowered hardware. The program targets emerging markets such as India and South Africa but regardless of where you live, if you can’t afford the flagship Android phones or don’t want to pay hundreds for a mobile device, you can always buy yourself an Android Go phone.

Google put up extensive work on making Android Go mobiles worthwhile. Phones running on Android Go come with less pre-installed apps and the OS its self is stripped down to such point that it enables phones with as low as 512MB of RAM and 4GB of ROM to run on Android 9 Pie (Go Edition), has some extra storage for third-party apps, and receive regular security updates.

Google’s Android Go software package includes for the first time the Google Assistant for phones with 1GB or less of RAM (Google Assistant Go), improved data saver app, Chrome app that has its own data saver and limits the access of background apps from eating up on your mobile data, a file manager app called Files Go that cleans your phone from unnecessary files.

What are Google Go apps?

Google made its part on pushing the low-tier hardware phones running Go edition of Android by designing a special edition of the Google apps. The line of Google Apps custom-designed to work smoothly on Android Go mobiles take half the space they occupy on regular Android devices, bring for the first time the Google Assistant on phones having 1GB of RAM or less, and are custom-made to better manage and save mobile data.

The list of lightweight Google-developed apps built specifically for Android Go program are:

• Google Go
• YouTube Go
• Google Assistant Go
• Gmail Go
• Google Maps Go
• Navigation for Google Maps Go
• Google Play
• Gboard
• Chrome

These apps are minimized at such levels that installing them takes from a few megabytes to some hundreds of kilobytes. To prevent these or any other app from eating up your phone’s memory space, Google provides the File Go that aside from its purpose of managing files and folders, it is used as a cleaner that wipes out junk and cache files that build up over time.

The Chrome for Android Go comes with functions that limit the access to mobile data from the apps running in the background. Google also encourages third-party developers with a set of guidelines for developing apps that focus on battery consumption, mobile data saving, connectivity, and device compatibility that target mobiles popularized in the emerging markets.

Are Android Go phones worth it?

Aside from Google’s goal bringing the latest feature-rich and secure versions of the operating system to inexpensive Android phones, Android Go phones still remain to be expensive. Yet, Android Go is not stock Android, manufacturers receive the Go firmware and after modifying it to fit their branding they release it. If you were looking for an affordable phone that runs pure Android, you’ll be much better with an Android One phone. They might cost a little more, but their features and performance are of a whole different range.

Chinese manufacturers such as Xiaomi and Huawei have brought affordable Android phones that run on processors initially designed for upper-midrange and high-end devices. Adding some more money to your phone budget will hand you with a cost-efficient smartphone that does not have limitations on its feature supports. But that’s a decision that only you can take.

Convinced that you want to get yourself an Android Go smartphone? Here are the best options you can pick from.

Samsung Galaxy J4 Core

The Galaxy J4 Core is the second Android Go Phone made by Samsung. It is an impressive revamp of the not-so-impressive and ugly J2 Core that was introduced in the summer of 2018. The new J4 Core is much larger and looks similar to the premium line of Samsung phones.

Galaxy J4 Core features a 6-inch LCD screen that comes with a resolution of 720 x 1480 pixel, it runs the Android 8.1 Oreo Go edition and gets powered by the Snapdragon 425 chipset with one gig of RAM. The built-in memory in this handset stays at 16GB with the support of storage extension of up to 512GB via the microSD card. It is the Android Go phone with the largest amount of storage expansion to date.

Regardless of its inexpensiveness, Samsung managed to implement an 8MP primary camera with an f/2.2 aperture, autofocus, and HDR. The Galaxy J4 Core earns its self the title as the Android Go mobile with the best camera amongst other standpoints. It can record relatively good videos and capture decent photography for the segment it belongs to. The 5MP sensor at the front also has an aperture of f/2.2 and an LED flash of its own.

Samsung did not insert a fingerprint sensor on this device. However, it does support two SIM cards, the headphone jack, and runs on a battery with a decent capacity of 3,300 mAh.

BLU Vivo Go

Blu Vivo Go is definitely the best phone Android Go currently has in its line. It sports design patterns found in top-notch smartphones of 2019. It currently is the only dual-camera Android Go phone. Vivo Go is massive for its segment, it has a 6-inch LCD display with a resolution of 720 x 1440 pixels, it isn’t the brightest of the screens but it still isn’t really that bad.

Vivo Go runs the cost-effective Mediatek MT6739 chipset that is specifically designed to enable low-cost phones to support large screens and run the 4G LTE network smoothly. The phone equips 1GB of RAM and 16GB of flash memory, alongside that, it also supports microSD cards for storage expansion of up to 64GB.

With its design that delivers an edge-to-edge touchscreen display functionality, Blu highlights its Android Go device with two cameras on the back. The 8MP autofocus sensor has a second 0.3MP depth sensor to record 1080p videos. It has a 5MP selfie snapper at the front with an LED flash of its own. Blu’s Android Go device is the smartphone with the best camera for $100. It produces photos and videos better than any other device for the value.

The sub-$100 Vivo Go phone features a fingerprint reader on the rear, supports two SIM cards, maintains the headphone jack socket, and gets its power from a 2,600 mAh battery. With its basic hardware, it should last you through the day with one single charge.

Nokia 2.1

Nokia has made a very powerful return at the smartphone business and has distributed a new series of Android-powered devices that target every segment. The Nokia 2.1 is Nokia’s second take on making a quality and affordable Android phone.

The Nokia 2 (2018) looks more like a now-obsolete Windows phone but it actually runs one of the latest versions of the Android firmware, the slimmed-down Android 8.1 Oreo. It runs the Snapdragon 425 SoC and packs 1GB of RAM with a disappointing 8GB of built-in storage. To make things better at a storage perspective, Nokia enabled this basic Android phone to support microSD cards of up to 128GB and has a dedicated slot for it.

An 8MP camera at the back and a 5MP sensor at the front is everything you’ll be getting in for photos and videos when buying yourself the Nokia 2.1 phone. This device also does not have a fingerprint sensor but does have the headphone jack. The battery, a massive unit of 4,000 mAh is probably a reason why the new Nokia 2 is worth it.

General Mobile GM 8 Go

General Mobile is a Turkish manufacturer that has been designing low-budget Android phones and tablets since 2005. It isn’t a popular brand in the US but it has quite a fan base in Germany. It has been a partner in Google’s Android One initiative and apparently couldn’t miss joining the Android Go program as well. Its first Android Go mobile device is the GM 8 Go, an Android featuring a 5.5-inch 720 x 1440p display that is protected by the durable glass made by Corning.

General Mobile GM8 Go runs the MediaTek MT6739 chip with one gig of RAM and 16GB of onboard memory. It houses Android 8.1 Oreo and it seems like it does not provide support for a microSD card. This phone has an excellent primary camera, its 13MP sensor has a 1.12µm pixel size and features phase detection autofocus, HDR, and an f/2.2 aperture. The 5MP snapper at the front uses software tweaks to enable the bokeh effect in selfies.

This budget mobile sports a fingerprint sensor on the rear, supports the 3.5mm earphone port and gets powered from a 3,500 mAh battery.

Asus ZenFone Live

Asus smartphones are not all about its Rog line of gaming devices that is now enriched with the Rog phone, the best smartphone to play games with. The Taiwanese manufacturer of electronics has quality handhelds for every segment of the mobile phones market. For instance, its ZenFone Max Pro is an upper medium-range mobile that costs less than an average low-cost smartphone. The Asus ZenFone line of all-range smartphones includes one of the best-quality Android Go mobiles to date. For that matter, the ZenFone Live technically is the only Android Go phone to offer double the number of RAM found in the rest of devices.

The ZenFone Live features a standard 5.5-inch LCD screen with HD resolution and runs the Snapdragon 425 chipset. It has variants having 1GB and 2GB of RAM with 16GB and 32GB of onboard memory. The upper edition of the ZenFone Live is the only Go phone to have 2GB of RAM and 32GB memory. To make things better, Asus enabled to its phone the feature to support microSDs of up to 512GB.

ZenFone Live, sometimes referred to as the Asus Zenfone 3 Go, sports a 13MP HDR-enabled sensor on the back with f/2.0 aperture and phase detection autofocus and a 5MP sensor at the front with an LED flash of its own and f/2.4 aperture. It can record 1080p videos with its primary camera, technical specs of the selfie camera are quite obscure and the manufacturer didn’t release anything regarding its capabilities.

The battery powering the ZenFone Live is a 3,000 mAh unit with the handset sharing support for two SIM cards. There is no fingerprint reader on this mobile while there is support for the earphone jack.

Alcatel 1X

The Alcatel 1X was the first ultra-low-end Android phone to come running the Go edition of the operating system. The compact 5.3-incher has an LCD screen having 480 x 960 in resolution and runs the Mediatek MT6739 processor with one gig of RAM and 16 gigs of built-in memory. There is also place for a microSD of up to 32GB if you want to expand the onboard storage availability.

The primary camera of this mobile is an 8MP sensor with HDR to record FHD videos with the selfie snapper being a 5MP sensor that enables HD video chat. It might not be much but isn’t that there are options of Android Go phones with a 4K camera anyway. An FHD camera at the back and an HD at the front is the best you can ask from the phones of this range of specs and cost.

Dual-SIM and a rear fingerprint highlight the connectivity features on the Alcatel 1X while the 2,460 mAh battery powers it up.

Huawei Y5 Lite

Huawei leads the way for the China-based manufacturers of cell phones with the Mate 20 Pro, the best performing Chinese smartphone. But Huawei is not about designing high-end mobiles with advanced AI support and fastest mobile processors that cost above $1,000, it also offers alternative devices to other segments of the phone market. The Y5 Lite is the company’s gift to the ultra-entry-level line of mobile devices that looks like any other Android to not give away its basic functions.

The Huawei Y5 Lite gets powered by the same MediaTek MT6739 chipset found in several phones running Android Go and has it backed by one Gig of RAM, 16GB of storage, with Go Edition of the Android 8.1 Oreo that has the EMUI 8 skin built on top of it. The available memory can be enlarged by up to 256GB via a microSD card.

Y5 Lite can record full HD videos with its HDR-enabled 8MP sensor featuring an f/2.0 aperture and phase detection autofocus and can snap selfies with its 5MP sensor at the front. A 3,020 mAh battery will keep this cell phone going throughout the day and two SIM cards that run the LTE network highlight its connectivity features.

Motorola E5 Play Go

Motorola Mobility has been offering alternative phones for a budget since long. Its take on the Android Go Edition smartphones resulted in the introduction of the Go edition of the Motorola Moto E5 Play. The G edition of the Moto E5 Play is the largest of the two, totaling a 5.84-inches it sits in the middle of the E5 and E5 Plus, equally-powerful mediocre low-end devices.

The Moto E5 Go limits is screen resolution to just 480 x 960 pixels and features an 8MP HDR camera on the rear and a 5MP selfie snapper at the front. It runs the Snapdragon 425 SoC with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage that can be expanded by up to 256GB via the microSD. The Android 8.0 Oreo Go edition provides you with a neat user interface and support to almost every application on the Play Store for the moment.

There is a fingerprint reader, support for wired headphones, and battery of just 2,100 mAh that backs this device. This phone isn’t much loaded in features and supports but it is an affordable option for anyone that finds the Motorola design something that’s worth having.

Samsung Galaxy J2 Core

The Galaxy J2 Core was the first Samsung phone running the slimmed-down Android Go operating system. It doesn’t have fancy patterns like the updated J4 Core but it still looks prettier than most of the current Android Go devices. Its LCD screen is of only 5 inches and has a resolution of 540 x 960 pixels.

The J2 Core runs the Exynos 7570 mobile processor that is backed by one gig of RAM, only 8GB of onboard storage, and Android 8.1 Oreo. You can further extend the storage via a microSD by up to 256GB but without it, the storage availability is ridiculously low.

The primary 8MP camera on the Galaxy J2 Core supports HDR imaging and features autofocus to record FHD videos. A 5MP camera at the front takes over the selfie-related and video chat feature supports. There is no fingerprint sensor here as well and the battery capacity is of only 2,600 mAh.

Nokia 1

The tiny and compact Nokia 1 is an excellent option for anyone that is not blown away by phones with large screens. This mini phone features a small screen of only 4.5-inches that has a resolution of 480 x 854 pixels. Despite being minuscule in size, the Nokia 1 does have all the essential ingredients a smartphone needs.

It runs the MediaTek MT6737M processor backed by 1GB of RAM, 8GB of onboard memory, and the Android 8.1 Oreo. Surprisingly, this phone supports a microSD card of up to 128GB. There is a 5MP camera at the back and a 2MP sensor at the front.

It is dual-SIM enabled, gets its power from a 2,150 mAh battery, and supports 4G LTE network and has GPS just like every other smartphone running Android Go in this list.

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The vast popularity of Android is to be credited to its flexibility. Mobile device manufacturers are allowed to make use of the Android source code to create a custom operating system of their own that will result in a phone that has some extras implemented in it by the manufacturer but will also be compatible to Google apps that we often find pre-loaded when we purchase an Android phone.

These custom operating systems can be found on almost every phone with each OEM adding personalized custom functions, shortcuts, and gestures to their product devices. Samsung’s One UI (former TouchWiz), Xiaomi’s MIUI, Huawei’s EMUI, HTC Sense, LG UX, are some of the most popular Android firmware to date.

However, that also is Android’s greatest weakness. Manufacturers often equip their devices with hardware that are compatible with the version operating system they ship with and may not be powerful enough to upgrade to later versions. As software updates are crucial for prolonging the life of a phone, being deprived of such vital maintenance, the phone might be left exposed to security vulnerabilities that were fixed on later versions, miss additional features and design revamps added to Android and even become incompatible to the latest versions of Android apps and games.

Who wants a phone that will not download the latest apps and games anyway?

One of the ways Google addresses Android’s low upgrade adoption rate is via the Android One program. Android One was initially meant as a lightweight version of the Android for low-end devices in the emerging markets. That has no become what Android Go phones are with Android One being adapted into phones of all ranges and prices to deliver a user interface that is close to stock Android and that makes the devices less expensive because OEMs no longer have to invest on coding a new OS.

What is Android One?

Android One is a slightly stripped-down version of the Android OS, and it installs on phones that run it with little to no modification. Android One phones are stripped down of any unnecessary application that sometimes manufacturers add to their products to deliver a seamless phone experience. Outside of some tiny manufacturer-added software such as the camera app or the software needed to support phone hardware, no other touches are applied to the operating system destined for an Android One smartphone.

Because Android One mobiles lack extras at a software level, they do not have the useless apps, skins, and bloatware that slow down the phone and saturate its battery. They are also safer from vulnerabilities because with each Android One device you are guaranteed software updates for at least two years.

What’s the difference between Android and Android One?

Android One phones are built differently from “regular” phones that run on Android. With the regular mobiles in production, manufacturers select the hardware it wants to use when making it, and then they build an operating system on it that’s based on Android and allows the manufacturer to add their signature into it.

Android One phones are built differently. With an Android One phone awaiting production, Google is directly involved with the selection of hardware that will make a phone and it even has the final word regarding their selection. But that’s not everything Google involves its self. The giant also goes back and forth with the OEMs overseeing the software creation and takes on the responsibility to deliver regular updates to it throughout the expected lifespan.

Android One phones offer a neat and pure interface that is quite close to Google’s image for Android, and you get to enjoy unlimited storage on Google Photos that do not affect the 15GB of free memory everyone receives when creating a Google account, and your favorite virtual assistant for mobile, Google Assistant to make life easier to you.

Nokia 8 Sirocco

Nokia 8 Sirocco is the best option of choice to a phone with a curved edge display, premium QHD screen resolution, excellent photography features, and up-to-date hardware Android One fans can put their hands to.

Nokia 8 Sirocco boasts compact glass design on both sides that’s kept squashed together via a stainless steel frame. The front OLED panel has curves on both edges and sports a resolution of 1440 x 2560 pixels. Nokia 8 Sirocco is also the best pick if you are looking for an Android One phone with a good camera. The dual 13MP sensors where the standard unit has a wide aperture of f/1.8, 1.4µm pixel size, and dual-pixel PDAF and the second telephoto sensor of the same megapixel range can record 4K videos at 30 frames per second.

The dual-cameras on the Nokia 8 Sirocco improve significantly when compared to the Nokia 8. Colors are rendered more accurately, and the phone can take decent shots under good light conditions. There’s a 5MP selfie snapper at the front which has a large pixel size sensor of 1.4µm and can record 1080p videos.

Read more: Phones with the best cameras

Unfortunately, there is no Android One phone to run the Snapdragon 845 SoC to date. The fastest mobile processor found on an Android One smartphone at this time is last year’s Snapdragon 835. Nokia 8 Sirocco has that too.

There are 8gigs of RAM and 128GB of non-expandable internal storage built into the previous Nokia flagship. The unmodified Android 9.0 Pie featured on the Nokia 8 Sirocco and every new Nokia phone, makes the phone easy-to-use through software that’s familiar to anyone that has previously, owned an Android-powered phone, and it has no annoying bloatware.

The connectivity is at top notch. There is support for two SIM cards, a rear-mounted fingerprint reader, and NFC for contactless payments. The battery powering the Nokia Android One-based powerhouse is a 3,260 mAh unit with Quick Charge 4.0 technology and Qi wireless charging support.

LG G7 One

LG G7 ThinQ is one of the best phones right now. But in case you’re not a fan of the UX firmware, LG has the G7 One that runs pure Android OS and is almost as good as the ThinQ edition. Although it is slightly downgraded and runs the Snapdragon 835 and not 845 as the G7 ThinQ, the G7 One still makes an excellent Android gaming phone for a budget.

The Snapdragon 835-leveraged LG G7 One has 3GB of RAM and just 32gigs of internal storage. The memory capacity is too low for a phone of this range. Luckily, you can increase the storage by up to 512GB via a microSD card. Android 9.0 Pie gives the finishing touch to this LG Android One phone.

The 16MP primary camera on the back featuring HDR, F/1.6 aperture, PDAF, and laser autofocus can record 4K videos at 30 frames per second. There’s an 8MP FHD camera at the front for selfie-taking and 1080p video recording. The overall camera features on the G7 One are not impressive. Its performance is comparable to the top-end phones from late 2016, such as the iPhone 7 for example.

The G7 One has a premium LCD screen of 6.1-inches that boasts a resolution of 1440 x 3120 pixels and has a notch in it. It supports two SIM cards, features a fingerprint reader on the back, gets fueled by a 3,000 mAh battery that comes with Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging technology and is wireless-charging enabled and has support for the headphone jack.

Nokia 8.1

Nokia 8.1 (known as Nokia X7 in China) is another premium device in HMD Global’s portfolio to come with Android 9.1 Pie out of the box that offers a clean, stock Android experience. Listed as an upper-midrange smartphone, it sports a large and vivid LCD display with a resolution of 1080 x 2280 pixels.

Nokia 8.1 boasts a glass design on both of its sides with an aluminum frame that keeps them sandwiched together. It shoots decent photos and records 4K videos with its Zeiss-design dual cameras on the rear that consist in a 12MP standard sensor with 1.4µm, f/1.8 aperture, dual-pixel PDAF, OIS, and HDR, and a second 13MP depth sensor. There’s an improved 20MP sensor at the front that makes the Nokia 8.1 a decent selfie phone alternative.

It is a disappointment that Nokia did not pick the Snapdragon 845 chipset for a brand new Android One phone launching in early 2019. It even downgrades from the Nokia 8’s Snapdragon 835 and runs the Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 instead with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable flash memory.

Nokia 8 from 2017 is actually better than the 8.1 of late 2018, but it isn’t an Android One mobile. The 8.1 houses a 3,500 mAh battery, a jack plug socket, a rear fingerprint, and supports two SIM cards.

Xiaomi Mi A2

Xiaomi is one of the largest providers of quality Chinese phones of all ranges and prices. Its second take on Android One resulted with the manufacturing of the Xiaomi Mi A2, an eye-catching feature-rich, and powerful mobile that sells for around $200.

The Mi A2, known in China as Xiaomi 6X, runs the Snapdragon 660 chipset with 4GB of RAM and 32GB/64GB of memory and has a premium edition packing 6gigs of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. The available memory cannot be extended further via microSD on any of the models. A neat user interface provided by Android 9.0 Pie tops it up.

Xiaomi’s Mi A2 has a 12MP and 20MP HDR-enabled dual camera setup on the back with PDAF and f/1.8 aperture that take decent pics when the lighting is sufficient and also record 4K videos. A cheap phone with 4K camera is not stumbled upon randomly yet. A 20MP camera at the front with an LED flash of its own and auto-HDR function provides you with satisfactory selfies and quality video chat at 1080p.

The Mi A2 packs an elegant an elegant metal-body design with a FullView 5.99-inch LCD display packing a resolution of 1080 x 2160 pixels. It has a fingerprint sensor on the rear, runs on a 3,000 mAh battery with Quick Charge 4.0 fast charging technology, supports two SIM cards, and continues the headphone jack.

Nokia 7 Plus

Nokia 7 Plus is one of the top products the “New Nokia” has designed to date. It sports a 6-inch notch-less FHD LCD display and the same dual cameras found on the Nokia 8.1 that can record 4K videos at 30 frames per second. It even is a great alternative to the 8.1 that runs Snapdragon 660 and does not have the ugly notch on the screen to mess things up.

A 16MP Zeiss-optics sensor at the front with f/2.0 aperture snaps decent selfies and records full HD videos at 30 frames per second. The handset has a premium design with a metal body at the back and copper bezels that highlight its beauty.

Nokia’s top-quality 7 Plus midranger has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable memory. It launched with Android 8.1 Oreo back in the March of 2018 and is now upgradable to Android 9.1 Pie. It supports two SIM cards, comes with a fingerprint reader at the back, and runs on a 3,800 mAh battery. In addition, there’s NFC, fast charging, and a headphone jack.

Motorola One Power

Motorola Moto One Power is one of the most beautifully-designed affordable Motorola phones, and it brings the traditional Moto design to Android One phone list. This Moto Android One device comes with no third-party apps except Motorola’s native applications that are quite useful.

Moto One Power, as the name suggests, has a massive battery that will keep it going for quite some time. Its battery, a 5,000 mAh unit is massive indeed and due to its Turbopower fast charging technology, it needs only 15 minutes of charging to stay up for up to six hours.

The One Power, referred to as the P30 Note in China, features a metal body design on the rear and boasts an FHD LCD display of 6.2-inches and equips an HDR-loaded 16MP sensor with f/1.8 aperture and PDAF with a 5MP depth-detection sensor on the back to record 4K videos on the go. There’s also a quite-impressive 12MP sensor at the front that takes over selfie-related functionalities.

Motorola’s One Power is splash resistant and has two SIM card slots, runs the Snapdragon 636 SoC with variants packing 3GB,4GB, and 6GB of RAM with 32GB and 64GB of expandable storage models. It features a fingerprint reader on the back with the Motorola logo embedded in it and brings continuation to the headphone jack.

Nokia 7.1

Nokia 7.1 performs slightly better than the Nokia 7, but it isn’t as good as the Nokia 7 Plus. It, however, brings the edge-to-edge display trend and adds a tiny notch to it.

The new Nokia 7.1 continues the all-glass body design found in almost every recent Nokia phone and packs a compact screen size of 5.84-inches with FHD resolution. It sports a 12MP standard camera with HDR and PDAF and a 5MP depth sensor on the back that supports 2160p video recording. Regarding selfies and video chat, the Nokia 7.1 brings up an 8MP sensor with f/2.0 aperture that shoots clear 1080p videos.

The Snapdragon 636-powered Nokia 7.1 has variants packing 3GB and 4GB of RAM with 32GB and 64GB of respective built-in memory. The available memory supports extension by another 400GB via a microSD card.

Nokia 7.1 is a dual-SIM phone and features a fingerprint sensor on the rear, NFC, and the headphone jack. It gets its power from a 3,060 mAh battery that supports fast charging.

Nokia 6.1 / Nokia 6.1 Plus

Nokia 6.1 and 6.1 Plus are two leading budget-oriented Android one phones that offer design choices to anyone that wants to enjoy the user experience only Android One provides. The Nokia 6.1 is no longer the top-choice Android with a home button the Nokia 6 was and goes FullVision while retaining the notch-less display while the Nokia 6.1 adds a notch and glass panels on both sides.

Both, the 5.5-inch Nokia 6.1 and the 5.8-inch Nokia 6.1 Plus feature FHD LCD screens that are protected by the Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The first of them runs the Snapdragon 630 chipset while the second phone with the notch has the slightly-faster Snapdragon 636. Nokia 6.1 has 3GB and 4GB of RAM editions with 32GB and 64GB of memory and the 6.1 Plus has 4GB and 6GB of RAM models also with 32GB and 64GB of built-in memory. Both these phones use their second SIM card as a microSD reader and can further expand the available storage by up 256GB and 400GB.

The smaller 6.1 houses a single 16MP camera lens made by Zeiss with HDR and PDAF for taking 4K videos. The same sensor can be found on the 6.1 Plus phone, but in this case, it works together with a 5MP depth sensor. The 8MP FHD selfie snapper on the Nokia 6.1 is upgraded to a 16MP sensor that captures clearer images on the 6.1 Plus edition.

Both these phones have 3,000 mAh batteries, rear-mounted fingerprint readers, NFC readers, and headphone jack.

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Manufacturers have been pushing the boundaries of mobile technology. New phones are faster, bigger, brighter, and most importantly, shoot better photos and record outstanding 4k videos. The portable photo snappers and vid recorders that smartphones have now become, enable you to record and share most important memories at high resolution on the go.

However, there are a lot of contenders competing for the prime spot. So, what should you look for when choosing the best camera phone for your budget? Specs sheets? Not really. Phone developers highlight photography capabilities on their phone products by adding a sheer number of megapixels on their camera units. It is easy to be tricked into purchasing a mobile device whose specs sheets say that there’s a 20MP camera on the back and bypass other devices whose number of megapixels might be 12 or 16. The following will be a quick explanation why more megapixels is not always better.

Why more megapixels is not always better?

Judging the photography features on a phone solely on the number of megapixels listed on its specs sheet makes for quite a lousy way to predict photographic performance. Simply put, the megapixel count is the total number of pixels that will make up an image captured by a camera sensor. To receive the megapixel number in an image sensor, multiply the number of horizontal pixels by vertical pixels. For instance, a 4608 x 3456 image sensor in the Nikon Coolpix B500 DSLR camera equates to sixteen megapixels.

Going past the megapixel number, the size of the sensor is a much accurate way to judge a camera. DSLR cameras often have much larger sensors and lenses than smartphone cameras. What not everyone knows is that “pixels” do not have a standard size. Cameras with a larger image sensor have larger pixels. Thus, they are capable of capturing more light and generating images of better quality. This is where manufacturers play with specs sheets. They stuff more pixels on their camera sensors to intentionally increase the megapixel count and better-promote their devices. But the megapixel fallacy has a toll and not a positive one. For them to make all those pixels fit inside the small sensor, they have to decrease the size of the pixels too, and those now-smaller pixels capture less light and produce noisy images. That’s why some smartphones with 12MP cameras can snap way better photos than phones with 16MP or 20MP cameras.

Along the sensor size and the image processor that comes with the dedicated graphics processors built into the CPUs of the modern smartphones the software that ties them all together plays a major role on how bright photos shot by a particular phone can be. The current best camera phone, Google Pixel 3, the software trickery where Google specializes in, makes this phone stand out from the competition.

 Why do some phones have two cameras (or more) on one side?

In most flagship mobiles you will find more two cameras on one side, sometimes even three such as with the LG V40 ThinQ or Huawei Mate 20 Pro. But, what are dual-camera phones, why do you need one, and are two cameras better than one?

The most popular dual-camera setup you will find on smartphones consists of a telephoto and a wide-angle lens working together. The telephoto unit is often associated with the featured digital zoom that gives you a fast 2x optical zoom. Because it has a shallow field of view, it makes distant objects appear similar in size to the objects near the camera, with the primary camera serving as a depth sensor, the telephoto sensor creates the bokeh effect that blurs objects in the background and highlights the foreground.

While the Wide-angle concept works reversely. The sensor with a vastly large field of view enables you to capture a larger area on the camera without having to move the device back and forth. Simply explained, the Telephoto camera lets you zoom in into your subjects while the wide-angle lens zooms out. When working together, the two camera sensors shoot images of a higher quality and make them appear more realistic.

What to look for when buying a phone for photography and video recording?

The top phones for photography have their cameras featuring HDR that lets the sensor capture brighter and darker areas in greater detail, an optical image stabilization to counter camera shake, video recording at a high number of frames per second such as 60fps when snapping 4K videos.

Anyways, camera sensor is not everything you should concern yourself with. Other smartphone features are important as well. Recording 4K videos take a big chunk off your phone’s internal memory, a phone with a vast built-in memory capacity and the support to expand the storage via a microSD is almost a must-have.

The perfect mobile for pics and videos should as well have a powerful battery to keep it going and a bright display of a high resolution for you to preview your pics and play recorded videos.

Here is all the information you need to know about the mobile phones with the best cameras to help you make the right decision when looking for the smartphone with the best camera.

Google Pixel 3 / Google Pixel 3XL

The Pixel 3 and the larger version of it, Pixel 3 XL, are the best Android smartphones and the top phones for photography. What makes the Pixel 3 the best smartphone for snapping photos and recording hi-res videos is the hidden Pixel Visual Core chipset and the software that specializes in recognizing what photos should look like and help you take the right shots every time.

The Pixel Visual Core is a built-in chipset that analyzes HDR+ images five times faster than a standard application processor and requires only one-tenth of the power. It handles machine learning, adjusts images based on the scene, and most of the other complex tasks that are related to the camera.

Google hasn’t given up on the single primary camera yet. As everyone knows that Google is all about perfecting algorithms and processing data, the software on the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL allows the 12MP camera on the flagship phone outperform every other adversary phone in feature supports related to photography.

The primary camera on the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL is a 12.2MP 1/2.55″ sensor with 1.4µm pixel size, dual pixel PDAF, OIS, auto-HDR, and dual-LED flash. At the hardware level, it is very similar to the camera found on the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. The placement of the camera and LED flash is now arranged in a similar way to the placement on the Pixel 2 XL, with both Pixel 3 phones sharing the same concept.

Pixel 3 wins against any phone for snapping bright photos at low light. The Google software dodge called Night Sight enhances photography at low light, surpassing any competitor, including Huawei’s photography beast, the Mate 20 Pro. Photos shot by this phone are bright and realistic.

Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL are also the best phones for selfie-taking. They sport two 8MP cameras where one of them is a wide-angle unit with PDAF and the other has an ultra-wide angle of view. Having two cameras at the front highlights the effects you can apply to your selfies and helps create better bokeh pictures to stun your friends on the social media.

Besides photography feature supports being at the top notch, another reason why either Pixel 3 or Pixel 3 XL should be your next camera phone is the unlimited amount of storage Google grants you on Google Photos for your high-resolution snaps and 4K videos.

Along the excellent camera, the Pixel 3 is the top compact smartphone. It sports a 5.5-inch FHD OLED screen and has no notch in it. The Pixel 3 XL is even larger, now sporting a 6.3-inch QHD display. The new Pixel phones are larger, and if you aren’t bothered by the ugly notch, the Pixel 3XL is the better of the two.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro

Huawei has paid its dues on pushing mobile photography forward. Cooperation with the German brand of cameras and lenses, Leica, resulted in the production of impressive high-profile smartphones that have excellent lenses on both sides.

Mate 20 Pro came soon after the P20 Pro, one of the best camera phones out there and it now takes the lead as the best Chinese phone money can buy. The triple camera setup is similar to that of the P20 Pro, a 40MP wide angle, 20MP ultrawide, and an 8MP telephoto sensor. There is not that much difference in camera performance on those two top-end phones at the hardware level. The software is what makes this trio-camera setup on the Mate 20 Pro better.

Cameras on the Mate 20 Pro are arranged on a grid of 2×2 where are positioned the three cameras and the dual-tone dual-LED flash. The main 40MP RGB sensor with a wide f/1.8 aperture and PDAF specializes in capturing details on every shot, with its sensor having a pixel size 1.7µm, its sensor receives more light and makes it the best phone camera for low light photography. The 8MP telephoto sensor captures objects in the distance and helps create the artistic bokeh effect while the 20MP ultra wide angle lens highlights panorama and landscape photos.

A front-facing 24MP sensor with PDAF that snaps outstanding selfies and now lets you unlock your phone with your face via a 3D scan.

Software and hardware upgrade is what pushes further the photography performance on the Mate 20 Pro. The new Huawei flagship boasts the world’s first 7nm chipset, the Kirin 980, which allegedly is one generation ahead of the current Qualcomm powerhouse, the Snapdragon 845. Noting that the even previous Huawei chip, the Kirin 970, was reported to deal faster with AI-related tasks than the Snapdragon 845. Kirin 980 allows the AI to work more quickly on analyzing each separate photo you take with your phone and make later shots better.

Mate 20 Pro with its massive 6.39-inch AMOLED QHD screen makes an outstanding viewfinder while the large 4,200 mAh battery will let you take snaps for quite a while. There are many different variants of the Mate 20 Pro. From the standard Mate 20 to the top-price Mate 20 RS Porsche edition.

Huawei P20 Pro

The P20 Pro is another exceptional mobile for photo snaps that Huawei made. It is quite comparable to the Mate 20 Pro in those terms. It also has a trio of mind-boggling cameras on the rear. They are placed vertically one over the other with the LED flash positioned at the bottom.

Huawei P20 Pro has the same 40MP, 8MP and 20MP camera setup on the back as found on the Mate 20 Pro. But on this mobile, the 20MP is a monochrome sensor that specializes in taking stunning black and white photos. A 24MP selfie snapper stands at the front, but it doesn’t have the 3D facial security system and the 3D Life Emoji that are implemented on the later Mate 20.

Although the camera on the Mate 20 Pro is more versatile due to the drop of the monochrome sensor for a wide-angle sensor is a leap ahead of the P20 pro by offering a Super HDR mode that combines ten frames at a RAW level and offers overkilling ISO values of up to 51,000, the P20 Pro remains to be as one of the best phones to take photos with.

The Leica zoom system on its cameras, the P20 Pro, supports 5x Hybrid Zoom, it was the first phone to provide this feature without a retractable lens. Huawei’s Master AI 2.0 image processing featured on this premium smartphone enables the device to create sections on photographs and treat each section separately to deliver better-quality snaps. Just like the Mate 20 Pro, the P20 Pro can also generate super slow-mo videos at 960 frames per second.

What makes the P20 Pro a steal is that it is one of the very few phones with a Home button and front-mounted fingerprint that equips the latest hardware and software.

Samsung Galaxy Note9

Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is the best Samsung phone at this time and the Samsung phone with the best camera. The dual 12MP snappers on the back revolve around a 12MP sensor with a revolutionary wide aperture of f/1.5 and pixel size of 1.4µm that works wonders to take dazzling snaps at low light and a second 12MP telephoto sensor with 2x optical zoom. Both cameras have OIS of their own while only the primary wide-angle unit is a dual-pixel PDAF sensor.

The camera on the Note 9 is perfectioned by the AI-backed software. The pre-installed Flaw Detection feature inspects each shot for blinks, blurs, backlighting, or smudges and when anything that’s interfering with the quality of the photo is found you will see a notification to adjust settings and reshoot. Note9 will actually let you know that the lens on your camera has collected dust and you’ll need to clean it to snap great pics.

The aperture adjustment is one of the best things that this phone has regarding photography. Depending on how lit the environment you want to capture with the lens of your phone’s camera, you can adjust the aperture from a stunning wide of f/1.5 at low light to the other end of the spectrum of f/2.4 where the objects are perfectly lit.

The promising scene optimizer on the Note9 is built to instantly detect objects and offers 20 different of modes to enhance colors for dazzling photoshoots.

The best smartphone with curved edge display ever made also brings an 8MP selfie snapper at the front with autofocus and the support for recording quad HD videos at 1440pixels. Selfies taken with the Note 9 can blow anyone away. You can take selfies remotely on the Note9 by using the Stylus Pen. You won’t need a selfie stick, place your phone in a position that it can see you and use the single button on your S Pen to take a selfie.

The massive notch-less QHD AMOLED display of 6.4-inch and the powerful Snapdragon 845 chipset with up to 8GB of RAM makes the Galaxy Note9 one of the best smartphones to play PUBG Mobile and other high-end games.

Samsung Galaxy S9+

Although the cameras on the Galaxy S9+ and Note9 appear to be the same on paper, the Note9 units actually perform slightly better. If you were to purchase the best Samsung phone camera, then the top choice will definitely be Note 9. Despite that, the Galaxy S9 Plus has camera sensors that do wonders.

With only the Galaxy S9+ having the dual-camera setup it is the better device of the Galaxy S9 series. The cameras on the S9+ have the same specs sheets as those found on Note 9. The super slow-mo video recording at 960 frames per second coming with this phone will blow you away.

The housed adjustable dual-aperture technology automatically adjusts to snap sharp photos regardless of the light conditions. This upgraded tech also comes with the single-camera Galaxy S9.

Having a curved and bright display of 6.2-inches makes the S9+ an excellent viewfinder and still compact. For anyone that cares, yes, there is a headphone jack on the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+.

iPhone XS / iPhone XS Max

Apple’s newest iPhone is one of the best phones ever made, and it also is the best camera smartphone for Apple fans. The best iPhone camera that comes on the iPhone XS and XS Max revolves around a 12MP primary 1/2.55″ sensor with an aperture of f/1.8 and 1.4µm pixel size and a second 12MP telephoto 1/3.4″ sensor with pixel size of 1.0µm and two-time optical zoom. Both sensors have optical image stabilization and phase detection autofocus of their own.

A 7MP TrueDepth sensor at the front is all you need for glaring selfies and remarkable video chat.

Besides the excellent sensors, what truly makes the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max one of the top phones for recording high-resolution videos and capturing phenomenal imagery is its super-fast A12 Bionic chipset. Its next-generation Neural engine uses real-time machine learning to transform the way you experience mobile photography.

The new smart HDR sews together multiple frames, with the new improvements it works wonders to limit overexposure of the bright light and adds those much-needed shadow details to your photos. Because of the pixel size is larger on the iPhone XS than it was on the iPhone X, the new iPhone shoots brighter pics at low light. An outstanding function that iPhone allows regarding photo shooting is the possibility to adjust the bokeh effect similar to what you can do on a DSLR camera. You can blur to maximum objects in the background or let them be clearly visible with no impact on your targetted objects.

iPhone Xs and Xs max can both record 4K videos at up to 60 frames per second and full HD at 240 frames per second. The standard XS version still is a compact phone with its 5.8-inch AMOLED screen. The 6.5-inch iPhone XS Max would make a better viewfinder than it.

Regarding power, almost like every other top-end smartphone out there, the Apple flagship is programmed to last you an entire day with a single charge. If you happen to take snaps very often, then consider connecting your new iPhone with a portable power bank for it to keep kicking through the day.

The iPhone XR has an excellent single-camera sensor that will grant you the XS performance for a lower budget.

LG V40 ThinQ

LG attempted to revolutionize the current mobile photography experience by bringing the world’s first five-camera smartphone, the V40 ThinQ. The combination of three cameras on the back and two at the front bests photography features on LG’s previous flagship, the V30, and makes the cameras on the new flagship more versatile. However, it is no secret, LG’s phone with three sensors at the rear cannot shoot clearer photography than the single-camera Pixel 3. The V40 ThinQ also has a higher starting price than most of its competition.

The primary triple camera setup on the LG V40 involves a standard 12MP sensor with a large aperture of f/1.5, 1.4µm pixel size, 3-axis optical image stabilization, and phase detection autofocus, a 12MP telephoto sensor with two-time optical zoom, f/2.4 aperture, OIS, and PDAF, and a 16MP ultra-wide lens with an aperture of f/1.9. The two selfie snappers on the V40 ThinQ are an 8MP sensor with f/1.9 aperture and a second wide-angle 5MP camera with a smaller aperture of f/2.2. The pixel size on both selfie cameras measures 1.4µm, such large pixels allows the sensors to snap clearer selfies and rank the V40 ThinQ as one of the phones with the best selfie cameras.

With its triple cameras on the rear, the V40 can record 4K videos at 60 and 30 frames per second and as well as full HD videos at 30, 60, and 240 frames per second. The 12MP standard and telephoto sensors can take images at a maximum resolution of 4032 x 3024 pixels while the 16MP wide-angle sensor can shoot them at up to 4656 x 3492 pixels. This is important because of the phone’s feature to allow you to see a preview of each photography as seen by each sensor and select the better of them.

LG offers a large number of ways to take a photo, and they are quite fun to experiment with. With the rear cameras it lets you see a triple preview of snaps from each sensor while with the selfie snappers you can pick from five studio-like lighting effects that lighten or contour your selfies, blur and create an awesome bokeh effect on any taken selfie, replace with any color you want the background, or turn into moving animations any objects on your shots.

Along with infinite customizations with the cameras, the LG V40 features HDR to elevate the quality of your snaps and add life to dark spots on the background and has AI that helps make each shot an artistic photography.

The sheer size of the V40 ThinQ, its 6.4-inch QHD OLED display that has no notch in it makes it an excellent viewfinder to preview your pics. It 3,300 mAh battery isn’t amongst the largest, but it now charges faster due to the Quick Charge 3.0 technology. Another reason why buy the V40 ThinQ is its in-house headphone jack.

Sony Xperia XZ3

Xperia XZ3 is the best phone for photography the Japanese manufacturer of electronics, Sony. Its single 19-megapixel sensor can do wonders. The 19MP Exmor RS wide-angle sensor featuring an aperture of f/2.0, 1.22µm pixel size, predictive phase detection autofocus, and laser autofocus is backed by the company’s Bionz image processor that analyzes and processes images captured by the camera faster to deliver the better possible images.

Images shot with the back camera of the Sony Xperia ZX3 are excellent, but there is noise on distant objects when you zoom in to photographs. However, this phone has some hidden camera tricks of its own. It supports 4K HDR videos at 30 frames per second and its super slow-mo video recording at 960 frames per second is at 1080pixels, outplaying the Galaxy Note9 whose super slow motion videos are at 720p.

The 13MP selfie camera on the Xperia XZ3 is amongst the best sensors on a phone. It has a wide aperture of f/1.9, 1.12µm pixel size, supports HDR, and snaps brilliant selfies and records clear full HD videos.

Xperia XZ3 boasts a 6.0-inch OLED screen with a resolution of 1440 x 2880 pixels that has curves on the edges, has 64gigs of internal memory that you can expand by inserting a microSD card, and gets powered by a 3,300 mAh battery. Xperia XZ3, one of the best phones with curved edge display out there also lets adds some fun to its cameras by letting you turn your photos into 3D image creations.

HTC U12+

HTC’s U12+ flagship is one of the most handsome phones money can buy. Its glass body design gets to fully express its self on the Translucent Blue edition that exposes the internal components. The transparent version of this phone certainly is the most attractive one.

The primary cameras on the HTC U12 Plus include a primary 1/2.55″ UltraPixel 4 sensor with 1.4µm pixel size, f/1.75, dual-pixel PDAF, OIS, and laser autofocus and a second 16MP telephoto sensor with f/2.6 aperture, two-time optical zoom, and 1.0µm pixel size with autofocus function of its own.

HTC U12 Plus can record 4K videos at 60 frames per second and 1080p videos at 30, 60, and 240 frames per second.

The U12+ greatly improves the camera performance when compared to HTC’s previous flagship phone, the U11. It takes outstanding still images and is an excellent camera phone for outdoor photography where when exposed to sufficient light it renders colors quite good and focuses rapidly on the subjects. It isn’t the perfect though. Many other top-tier Android flagship phones outperform it.

Images taken with this phone do have noise, and such noise is more visible at low light. The overall photography features on the current HTC phone are outstanding, but there are phones that take better photos than it.

The selfie cameras on the HTC U12 Plus are also some of the best featured on a phone. They are two 8MP sensors with f/2.0 aperture and relatively large pixel sizes of 1.12µm and support HDR just like the cameras on the rear. The front cameras also support 3D facial recognition to instantly access your phone just by looking at it.

There also are AR stickers available to customize photos and videos taken via any of the cameras.

HTC managed to maintain the compactness on its flagship device by limiting its size to only six inches. The featured LCD screen of this phone boasts QHD resolution and does not have a notch, it has 6gigs of RAM and 128GB of expandable internal storage and gets powered by a 3,500 mAh battery.

OnePlus 6T

OnePlus phones are the primary option of choice for a premium smartphone experience that costs half the price of the rest of top-tier alternatives. OnePlus 6T is the best camera phone $500 can buy, and there is no doubt about that.

The OnePlus flagship is a high-performing mobile that will cost you just a little more than an average midrange phone and with its equilibrium of features and price will allow you to take some excellent photos and videos in a device that costs nearly half the price of a high-end smartphone. The natural mixing of features and cost is the primary cause that makes every OnePlus phone a top-popular phone choice year after year as manufacturers upgrade their devices.

OnePlus 6T comes housing two wide-angle lenses where the one that serves as the standard sensor is a 16MP 1/2.6″ sensor with 1.22µm pixel size, OIS, and a second 20MP sensor whose pixel size is one µm. Both sensors have a wide aperture of f/1.7 and PDAF. The lack of a telephoto unit with 2X optical zoom kinda limits the photography experience on zoom.

The 16MP selfie camera is as good as any selfie snapper can be. Unless you are a professional photographer that knows what to look for in a camera phone, you won’t be disappointed with the camera performance OnePlus 6T has preserved for you.

The camera on this phone renders colors quite well and performs well in bright and low-light conditions. Its support for HDR highlights the photo shooting experience and offers decent bokeh effects. The autofocus on this phone is amongst the best. An appropriate camera rival of the OnePlus 6T is Google’s flagship from 2017, the Pixel 2.

Design adjustments on the new OnePlus decrease the screen notch and enable it to be amongst the best viewfinder phones for shooting photography and capturing videos at a high resolution. The Snapdragon 845 SoC with 6GB of RAM and the built-in storage model of 256GB leave enough space to experiment with photography and filming.

A 3,700 mAh battery will keep the OnePlus 6T going for an entire day. If you don’t mind paying a little more, the OnePlus 6T McLaren edition has super-fast charging properties that get it fully charged in just 40 minutes. It also has 10GB of RAM.

Xiaomi Pocophone F1

Xiaomi revolutionized the market of cheap smartphones with the introduction of the Pocophone F1. The HDR-enabled dual cameras on the Poco F1 include a 12MP  1/2.55″ sensor featuring 1.4µm pixel size, f/1.9 aperture, and dual-pixel PDAF and a 5MP depth sensor with f/2.0 aperture and 1.12µm that together can capture great pictures that render colors quite well and record 4K videos at 30 frames per second.

Poco F1 takes satisfactory photographs at day time. It keeps noise under control and renders colors very accurately to produce sharp and detailed images. The phone doesn’t do that well on environments that aren’t lighted properly, there’s no OIS on the Xiaomi’s budget option, probably as a result of a cost-cutting measure. But in general, the photography features on the Poco phone will not disappoint.

There’s a 20MP sensor at the front that performs well when the light is sufficient. It certainly can’t match up with top-tier competition regarding camera functionalities, but when considering the price, it is the best cheap camera phone out there.

The backbone of the Pocophone is the Snapdragon 845 chipset that turns it into a powerful device that can do everything any other phone can. It has a large FHD display of 6.18-inches with a notch, gets its fuel from a 4,000 mAh battery, has variants with up to 256gigs of expandable memory, and supports the headphone jack. A solid low-price phone option for top-end performance is what Xiaomi has successfully manufactured with the Pocophone F1.

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Luckily, you are not forced to spend a fortune on a smartphone. There are phones for every budget. Cell phones of below $500, $400, and $300 are very common. These are the backbone of mid range phones that offer excellent performance for the value. Despite phone prices escalating in the last few years, it is definitely possible to find impressive mobile phones for under $300 and even $200.

There’s actually an unlimited supply of low-end entry-level performing mobile devices out there. But, we aren’t looking at them. We’re looking to find the top smartphones that sell for a budget and perform well.

What to expect from a budget smartphone?

Despite being labeled as cheap, most of the low-price phones will have a full high-definition camera on the back, usually a 13MP or a 16MP unit and an 8MP or 5MP selfie snapper at the front. Now, these are not the best cameras phones have had but they can still manage to snap some good pics and record relatively clear videos when the environment is properly lit.

Most of the budget Chinese phones run on MediaTek-made processors while those made by manufacturers in the US are powered by Qualcomm chipsets. They all have a premium design and often have exactly what new top-end phones have dropped, the front-mounted fingerprint reader, a screen without the notch, and the headphone jack.

Nokia 6.1

The Nokia 6 2018 edition is a solid Android phone for less than $200. It bears the signature of Nokia branding for quality and long-lasting maintenance. Nokia 6.1 not only is the top dog of cheap mobiles but is also the best budget Android One smartphone out there.

The 2018 edition of Nokia 6 drops the Home button but fails to deliver an edge-to-edge touchscreen experience. It continues the 5.5-inch screen size from the predecessor of 2017 where the screen is the same FHD LCD panel. However, the new Nokia 6 is faster, it upgrades to Snapdragon 630 and is backed by 3 and 4gigs of RAM with 32 and 64GB of respective extendable built-in memory. The phone debuted with Android Oreo but is now upgraded to Android P and because it is an Android One device, its UX is not touched by the manufacturer and has its security is managed by Google.

The 16MP primary camera will now record videos at 4K resolution while the selfie snapper is an improved 8MP sensor that shoots FHD vids. This cheap Nokia phone sports a back-mounted fingerprint reader, gets its energy from a built-in 3,000 mAh battery and supports wired headphones via the 3.5mm headphone jack.

Huawei Honor Play

The Honor Play by Huawei isn’t that of a cheap mobile, but it certainly is a bargain for the value. Powered by Kirin 970, the Honor Play is the fastest budget smartphone the market has in offer at this time. Its extensively large FHD screen that measures 6.3-inches in diameter with edge-to-edge touchscreen availability makes it a trending device. Its top-end specs transform this not-so-expensive Huawei mobile device into an excellent game performing phone for a budget.

The Honor Play has a duo of a 16MP and 2MP cameras on the back to snap 4K videos and a 16MP camera sensor on the front for FHD video chatting and high-resolution selfie-taking. It features a rear-mounted fingerprint reader, boasts a 6GB of RAM version, gets its power from a 3,750 mAh battery, supports NFC for Google Pay, and features the headphone jack.

Huawei Mate 20 Lite

The Mate 20 Lite is the affordable edition of the flagship killer Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro. Huawei Mate are some of the most successful mobiles made by Huawei.

Huawei has a series of top-end line of devices that receive a low-budget edition and currently, there are quite a good number of cheap Huawei phones that you can opt from for a purchase. Amongst the best of them is the Mate 20 Lite, a large phablet that sports a 6.3-inch FHD LCD screen and that’s designed to look way better from the back than the triple-camera Mate 20.

The Mate 20 Lite runs on the Kirin 710 chipset, a mobile processing SoC that’s comparable to the Snapdragon 710. Although it is slightly outperformed by the Qualcomm chip, still every phone that has it will be performing quite fast. This handset has 4GB and 6GB of RAM editions with each having 64gigs of internal memory capacity. The phone supports memory extension by up to 256GB via a microSD card and has a dedicated slot for it.

Mate 20 Lite is a quad-camera smartphone with dual camera setups implemented on both sides of it, something rare for the line of the affordable mobile phones. Huawei appears to have designed this device as a selfie-focused smartphone as the handset sports better camera sensors on the front. Respectively, a 24MP and 2MP setup on the front and 20MP and 2MP cameras at the back. Both cameras record full high-definition videos.

There’s a decent battery of 3,750 mAh to keep this handset going throughout the day, and support for NFC, rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, and the headphone jack.

Samsung Galaxy A6 (2018)

Samsung Galaxy A series (meaning Alpha) are supposed to have products belonging to the upper-midrange segment, but because of many impressive China phones selling for a sub-$400 price, not all of them manage to provide what the rest of the mid-range competition has to offer. Thus, Samsung’s midrange Galaxy A6 drops to the low-price line of mobile phones where it actually lists as one of the top dogs.

Powered by the Exynos 7870 (comparable to the Snapdragon 625) and backed by 3GB/4GB with 32GB/64GB of storage models and Android 8, the Galaxy A6 sets to take over the market. It boasts a decent 720p OLED screen of 6 inches and has 16MP cameras on both sides. With both camera sensors being full high definition.

It sports a side-mounted fingerprint, NFC for contactless Google payments, headphone jack, and a quite-good battery with a capacity of 3,000 mAh that keeps it going for up to 10 hours on heavy use.

Blu Vivo XI+

Blu phones have been rocking as the top affordable mobiles for the US market, Blu is one of the very few US-based manufacturers that exclusively focuses on designing and producing quality low-cost mobile phones. They’re also popular for being easily obtainable with Blu often selling its products exclusively on Amazon.

Vivo XI+ is Blu’s flagship smartphone. It packs a large screen of 6.2inches with curves on the edges and FHD resolution. Phones with dual curved edge displays do not come that often for a budget. Anyway, this excellent low-price mobile sports a 16MP and 5MP dual cameras on the back for snapping 1080p videos and a second 16MP sensor at the front. In addition, this Blu smartphone features facial recognition and a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor.

Blu Vivo XI Plus runs on MediaTek’s Helio P20, a midrange processor that according to benchmarking sites outperforms the Snapdragon 660. This phone comes with 4 gigs and 6 gigs of RAM with 64 gigs and 248 gigs of built-in storage. Memory extension via a microSD card is supported with Android 9.0 Pie OS upgrade highlighting this phone’s overall experience.

This Blu smartphone does not support wired headphones. It gets powered by a 3,050 mAh battery that supports Qi wireless charging and supports two SIM cards.

Huawei P20 Lite

The P20 Lite is a light and cost-efficient edition of the Huawei P20 top-end flagship handset. The Huawei P20 Lite is a compact low-price mobile that sports a FullVision screen of only 5.84-inches. The screen of it is made of an LCD panel with 1080p resolution and has a notch that hosts the 16MP and 24MP selfie cameras.

This selfie-focused smartphone has two cameras on both sides. With the 24MP and 16MP sensor at the front outperforming the 16MP and 2MP units at the back, despite both units being capable of recording videos at full high definition.

The P20 Lite runs the Kirin 659 SoC, a mobile processor manufactured by Huawei that offers a similar performance to the one provided by the Snapdragon 625. There are 4 gigs of RAM with versions of the phone having 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB of extendable internal storage. P20 Lite runs on Android 8.0 with EMUI 8.1 skin on top.

Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite

The Mi 8 Lite is the budget alternative of the flagship killer, Xiaomi Mi 8 phone. The Mi 8 Lite even packs a slightly larger screen than its top-end counterpart, however, the 6.26-inch FHD screen of this phone is an LCD and not an OLED unit.

The MI 8 Lite runs on the swift Snapdragon 660 chipset and has 4GB and 6GB of RAM models with versions having 64GB and 128GB of respective built-in storage that supports expansion. The Android 8.1 Oreo with Xiaomi’s custom MIUI OS on the top further highlights the overall excellent specs of this low-cost smartphone.

The 12MP and 5MP cameras of the Mi8 Lite shoot clearer images than the 12MP sensors embedded on either Redmi Note 6 Pro Mi A2. The later, two other budget Xiaomi phone alternatives. In addition, the primary camera of this cheap mobile from China supports 4K video recording. A 24MP camera sensor at the front makes it an excellent choice for an affordable selfie phone pick.

The Lite edition of the Xiaomi Mi 8 sports a rear-mounted fingerprint reader, gets powered by a 3,350 mAh battery and has two SIM cards.

Moto G6

For a long time, Motorola provided with the top choice low-price phones for purchase. However, times have changed now, despite top-end smartphone prices skyrocketing, the cost of alternative phones has declined significantly. Nevertheless, Motorola Moto G6 that costs nearly $200 still is a decent handheld device for anyone that doesn’t need an extensively fast device.

The Moto G6 packs a 5.7-inch 1080p LCD display that does not have a notch in it and it is one of the very few phones with a physical Home button and front-mounted fingerprint reader out there. The Snapdragon 450 with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable built-in memory combined with Android 9.0 Pie upgrade will prevent your phone from running out of available storage or application supports but it won’t provide you with much support for top-end games. An upgraded version of it, the Moto G6 Plus, that runs the much-faster Snapdragon 630 will provide you with a much faster product. You can purchase the Moto G6 Plus from Amazon for only $245. It also has a larger display of 5.9-inches and its dual camera setup supports 4K video recording.

There’s a 12MP + 5MP dual-camera setup on the back and an 8MP sensor at the front. Moto G6 records FHD videos with the cameras on both sides. It gets powered by a 3,000 mAh battery, it has NFC and supports wired headphones.

Xiaomi Mi A2 (Mi 6X)

Xiaomi Mi A2, sometimes referred to as the Xiaomi Mi 6X is a handsome Android One smartphone that comes for an affordable budget. Mi A2 spotlights an FHD LCD screen of 5.99-inches and a 12MP + 20MP dual cameras on the back that can snap 4K videos and 20MP selfie snapper at the front for recording full high-definition clips.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 with 6GB of RAM, 128GB of non-expandable built-in storage and OS upgrade to Android 9.0 Oreo highlight the hardware and software capacity of this affordable mobile device.

Mi A2 sports a fingerprint sensor on the back, it gets powered by a non-removable 3,000 mAh battery, but there is a drawback. No headphone jack.

Alcatel 1x

In case the sub-$200 phones are still too much for you, there still are good smartphones that you can buy for under $100. The Alcatel 1x debuted on the MWC 2018 event as the first Android Go smartphone. Android Go is a thinned version of the Android operating system that’s modified to run Google’s mobile operating system on entry-level mobile devices.

The Alcatel 1x has a 5.3-inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 960 x 480 pixels, features a dual camera setup on the rear that involves a 13MP and an 8MP sensor capable of recording 1080p videos and a 5MP selfie camera at the front for HD video chat.

This entry-level Android smartphone runs the MediaTek MT6739 (a chip somewhat comparable to the Snapdragon 425), it has 1GB and 2GB of RAM editions with 16GB and 32GB capacity of internal memory. The storage can be expanded further by up to 32GB via a microSD card. This small budget phone runs Android 8.1 Oreo (Go Edition) and will support the vast majority of the Android apps Play Store has in its index.

A fingerprint reader mounted on the back, 3.5mm headphone jack socket, and a decent battery of 2,460 mAh will make your cheap smartphone relevant and keep it going throughout the day.

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