Best mid range phones (~500)?

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TeaLeaf

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#270531 13-May-2020 21:02

My pick is the Mi K20 Pro/Redmi 9t, I know its a year old, but its specs are current gen so I feel its worthy. The 9t Pro at $800 is an even more amazing package with the sd855 platform. but for $1000 Id be going the Mi10 Pro with its SD865 and higher quality 108Mp camera setup.

For $480~ you get a lot of bang for buck with the amoled and qualcomm 730 chipset, not to mention 6GB ram and a handy camera (not quite the 108Mp beast on the Mi 10x range, but good enough).

i feel the a51 is good but it just lacks the power of the Xiaomi.

What is your favorite mid ranger?

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#2483165 13-May-2020 21:13

Where's Peter reader when you need him? Calling @PeterReader.

timmmay

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#2483167 13-May-2020 21:15

Moto G8 Plus is a clear winner in this area for me. It's powerful enough, reliable, plain Android. I usually keep phones for a long time, but wouldn't mind something a bit more powerful if it comes along - something compact but powerful like the new Apple 2020 SE.

I had and sold the Xiaomi 9T for a variety of reasons, described here, and would recommend against it for most people.

TeaLeaf

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#2484606 15-May-2020 17:48

timmmay:

Moto G8 Plus is a clear winner in this area for me. It's powerful enough, reliable, plain Android. I usually keep phones for a long time, but wouldn't mind something a bit more powerful if it comes along - something compact but powerful like the new Apple 2020 SE.

I had and sold the Xiaomi 9T for a variety of reasons, described here, and would recommend against it for most people.

The ~$500 range is a hard one to please given its no longer really mid range, although if you consider the A51 in there its definitely not bottom range.

I agree re the compact and powerful, thats why I REALLY liked last years s10e being a QHD, as powerful as the other 2 phones, flat face (curved screens, a fad that has taken a long time to die), good camera, good battery life. Did you over look this Timmmay, I think its what you are looking for? The only thing I dont like it hasnt dropped from $850 last year yet. It was the phone I wanted to buy but at the time with a lot of money going out of our pockets and me becoming seriouslly ill I decided against it and went with an A30 instead, which is good, but I do desire a tad more power and some more ram and if possible QHD. But for now Im not personally looking to replace it. Even if it lags occasionally, the screen is awesome and thats what I bought it for.

Timmmay the newly released Redmi 9s will give you 127h vs 83h for the G8 Plus in GSMarenas battery test.

I REALLY had high expectations for the g8 plus, but was quickly let down again by the lack of battery life and power. The Problem with the Moto Power G8 (and probably why its not well received many) is it both lacks the Power in both CPU sense and in Battery life. It only carries a 4000mah battery which explains battery life, the sd665 soc was half way decent and about the same power as is in the base 9t, but its camera isnt good either AND it only has 4GB ram. GSMA got 83h out of it in comparison to the 105. So I dont personally rate it outside one thing, plain old Android as is, oh yes that is nice. Amazing how many brands devalue their product by trying to put a skin of their own on. I really like Moto phones until I see whats inside, I really wish they would up their game with power, ram, battery and camera because the UX is good. https://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_g8_plus-review-2046.php

The Mi Note 10 is a well speccd phone, but with the the s10e only being $80 more, I think Id spend the extra and its well out of the $500~ range. I think the Mi 10 range has taken a big step forward from 9 and thats why it was 1 of only 2 companies to increase sales last year (Samsung, Huawei and Apple losing a bit of ground). The Mi 10 5G is an awesome phone for $1k, if you put the Pixel APK on it,it competes with the galaxy having the same sensor. It bests the s20+ in a lot of areas and is $1k not $2400. This is where I wanted to see Huawei stick with value and I think the p40p is $200 over priced and needs Android as well for that price. It would just dominate the market at that price range. $1500 gives a lot of other options including Brand loyalty with the other 2 on the 2 lower tier phones.
https://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_mi_note_10-9936.php

Sooooo going back I think the other 2 options are the Redmi 9s and the Samsung A51,

The Redmi 9s for $380 is crazy good value even with some light leakage as per most LCDs. It has more grunt than the a51, with Antutu synthetic being twice the power, benchmark still considerably more powerful, real world I think both should be enough for IRL. 9s has 6GB ram, a 720g (8nm vs 10nm) SOC, a pretty good quad bayer type set up including macro like the new mi 10 line up. But the real big deal is the 127h endurance rating vs 87h on the samsung. Really it comes down to how much do you want an Amoled. And if you do, despite its flaws I think the 9t is still good value. The 9s though, being newer and has great value on its side, a shame the about the screen, but the real deal is if you want a 3day power phone (for moderate users).

So here are how these 2 Xiaomis and the Samsung stack up.

Samsung a51 $550
Xiaomi 9T $480
Xiaomi 9S $380 (or $500 from PBtech, i think with the extra years warranty)

https://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=10147&idPhone2=9963&idPhone3=9738

timmmay

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#2484662 15-May-2020 20:39

TeaLeaf:

Timmmay the newly released Redmi 9s will give you 127h vs 83h for the G8 Plus in GSMarenas battery test.

There's approximately 0.1% chance I'll ever buy an Xiaomi / Redmi phone again. They're 80% great and 20% abysmal, with weird OS changes to limit what users can do, and I can't tolerate the poor parts.

sbiddle

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#2484731 16-May-2020 08:10

Problem is I don't think you can consider ~$500 a "mid range" phone any longer. In many respects that is far closer to entry level. In many respects mid range now sits in the $700 - $1000 range, and you've then got high end devices above that.

farcus

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#2484831 16-May-2020 14:06

timmmay:

TeaLeaf:

Timmmay the newly released Redmi 9s will give you 127h vs 83h for the G8 Plus in GSMarenas battery test.

There's approximately 0.1% chance I'll ever buy an Xiaomi / Redmi phone again. They're 80% great and 20% abysmal, with weird OS changes to limit what users can do, and I can't tolerate the poor parts.

you could of course get one of their Android One phones which sidestep the weird OS issue you dislike. -I have an A2 that I absolutely love and there is nothing that is comparable in its price range.
They do tend to suffer from hit and miss (buggy) updates - but you can usually avoid this by holding off a few weeks after a major (e.g. android 9 > 10) update is released.

timmmay

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#2484938 16-May-2020 16:50

farcus:

you could of course get one of their Android One phones which sidestep the weird OS issue you dislike. -I have an A2 that I absolutely love and there is nothing that is comparable in its price range.
They do tend to suffer from hit and miss (buggy) updates - but you can usually avoid this by holding off a few weeks after a major (e.g. android 9 > 10) update is released.

I did look at that, but decided against it for some reason, possibly just because I didn't want exposure to the risk of a brand that does things like put out such rubbish fingerprint scanners and cripped features on the OS like removing smart lock. A2 is pretty cheap, bit slower than the G8. Plus my wife and my Mum already had the G8 plus so it was a known quantity, and I'd already lost about $200 selling a near new 9T.

The Xiaomi A3 is out, but it has an in-screen fingerprint reader, which is one of the key reasons I sold the 9T. It's also not really much faster than the A2, but it's a little faster than the G8 plus.

The Pixel 4A is a potential good phone, but will be much more expensive than the A3.

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TeaLeaf

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#2485323 17-May-2020 19:55

sbiddle:

Problem is I don't think you can consider ~$500 a "mid range" phone any longer. In many respects that is far closer to entry level. In many respects mid range now sits in the $700 - $1000 range, and you've then got high end devices above that.

Yes I agree. Like I said about the A51 it sits in that low to mid range phone bracket, its not low end like an A10 or A20 and its not end like a s20 utra.

The thing is though, thanks to Xiaomi (and others overseas) it keeps people in the game of good specs for not much money as well.

I see the $7-800 as the solid line of mid range and anything more being companies known for excessive pricing.

Thanks to the likes Oneplus you keep companies like Sammy and Apple honest price wise, well not that they do, more it keeps us with options for equal phones for much less.

But generally it does feel prices driven by samsung and apple just keep going up each year. Perhaps thats why Xiaomi and Realme were the only companies to make positive sales over the previous year in the top 5 performers.

TeaLeaf

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#2485466 18-May-2020 09:57

timmmay:

I did look at that, but decided against it for some reason

Yeah the 9t with all its hardware suffered some stuttering vs the buttery smooth OP7Pro which was awesome and the 8 is just even better. I have to say the Op8Pro 8GB for $1200 vs s20 for $1400 really turns me on toward OP now.

However the mi 10 looks a LOT better in that regard and the in screen FP you hated (which imo samsung wasnt much better), is gone, the mi 10 is now one of the fastest FP scanners supposedly (reviews).

But imo all under screen FP scanners are whack. Bad UX design imo. I like the side scanners.

And not to seem like I go phone romance with the Mi lineups, but the note 9s has a fast side button scanner. Its whether you can live with dimmer LCD screen is the choice, for $380. I cant see how its bested for low-mid range phone given the price over the A51.

9s, mi 10pro, OP8 side by side. the later two trade blow for blows. The look fairly even power wise, as they should, but the OP8 has the better battery life with slightly smaller battery, which again will be xiaomi software optimisation likely, or OPs better optimisation depending on how you look at it.

However battery life performance. the 9s is a MONSTER for battery life, mid users possibly getting 3 days from it.

https://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=10147&idPhone2=10055&idPhone3=10161

timmmay

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#2485479 18-May-2020 10:19

I don't think I'd be ok with Xiaomi's attitude to Android, removing features to try to get users to buy your hardware - which is why I think they've messed with the feature that lets you keep your phone unlocked when it's in specific locations / connected to specific Wifi networks. I forget the feature name. If they put Android One onto that hardware, and supported it, it would be a win.

I'll probably stick with the Moto G8 until a decent Android vendor comes out with the Android version of the iPhone 2020 SE. That's a good size, very fast, and really well priced. Not quite enough to get me to move to iPhone, but close.

maoriboy

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#2485500 18-May-2020 11:14

TeaLeaf:

This is where I wanted to see Huawei stick with value and I think the p40p is $200 over priced and needs Android as well for that price. It would just dominate the market at that price range. $1500 gives a lot of other options including Brand loyalty with the other 2 on the 2 lower tier phones.
https://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_mi_note_10-9936.php

The P40 does have Android on it. What it does not have installed is Google services which can (for the most part) be installed onto the device.

TeaLeaf

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#2491464 25-May-2020 22:45

maoriboy:

The P40 does have Android on it. What it does not have installed is Google services which can (for the most part) be installed onto the device.

Yes my bad. and for $900 with a watch is damn good value for the best main camera sensor and leica lenses. I think there is still hope for play store and other services. Depends on how much China can claim made in Taiwan I think. This will turn out being a fight over independence which the US will back clearly.

openmedia

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#2491470 25-May-2020 23:38

sbiddle:

Problem is I don't think you can consider ~$500 a "mid range" phone any longer. In many respects that is far closer to entry level. In many respects mid range now sits in the $700 - $1000 range, and you've then got high end devices above that.

I consider $500 high end, and would consider $300-$350 midrange - especially with the features available these days. Anything over $1000 is crazy money for a phone when I'm budgeting $100/yr for my device.

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

Handle9

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#2491480 26-May-2020 01:18

openmedia:
sbiddle:

Problem is I don't think you can consider ~$500 a "mid range" phone any longer. In many respects that is far closer to entry level. In many respects mid range now sits in the $700 - $1000 range, and you've then got high end devices above that.

I consider $500 high end, and would consider $300-$350 midrange - especially with the features available these days. Anything over $1000 is crazy money for a phone when I'm budgeting $100/yr for my device.

That's nice.

Your expectations and the market for mobile phones aren't aligned.

timmmay

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#2491488 26-May-2020 06:09

My $0.02

Low end: does the basics, slowly, but gets the job done: maybe free to maybe $300
Midrange: does the basics, bit nicer looking, more reliable, and faster, maybe a few more features: $300 to $600
High end: super fast, all the features, robust and long lasting $600+

Manufacturers are making faster, more capable phones, trying to improve state of the art, speed, brand image. Many people just want to make a few calls, send a few messages, check their email, and maybe play a game when they're bored. You don't need a supercomputer for that.

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