Admit it – the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is the phone you crave. Or perhaps it’s Apple’s upcoming iPhone X Plus, maybe Huawei’s flagship or Nokia’s rumored five-camera monstrosity. It’s OK to drool at the sight of these amazing pieces of hardware – they are, after all, desirable pieces of hardware that anyone would like to put in their pockets. But think about what you would be using them for. Perhaps an hour or two of playing Fortnite in the first couple of weeks or months, followed by playing around with some of their advanced features once or twice, then using them as you would use any other smartphone, to read the news, watch a few video clips, snap some selfies and check out the odds for the upcoming match in the Betway app. All this for a price that’s, let’s face it, too much for the pockets of the majority of people – the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 costs between $1,000 and $1,250 contract-free, plus tax and shipping. This price, in turn, could buy you not one, not two but three, perhaps even four mid-range phones that have the hardware to satisfy all your needs – like the ones below.
Xiaomi Mi A2
Formerly known as the Xiaomi Mi 6X, this handset is a recent (re)release powered by Android One. It has an octa-core Snapdragon 660 SoC under its hood, paired with the Adreno 512 GPU, up to 6GB of RAM, up to 128GB of internal storage, a dual-camera setup, a 3,000mAh battery (non-removable), and pretty much everything else a smartphone needs (it doesn’t have a headphone jack but it comes with a USB-C to 3.5mm adapter). And a pretty friendly price tag – the price of the Galaxy Note 9 will buy you four units of the cheapest edition of the handset (with 4GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage) at GearBest, and you’ll be left with a bit of change for a case or a battery pack, too.
Nokia 5.1
HMD Global returned to the smartphone market in force, apparently determined to return the Nokia brand to its former glory. It is yet to release a true flagship handset (none of its previous models had the “wow” factor needed to qualify as one) but its offer has been amazing nonetheless when it comes to mid-to-high-range smartphones. Their Nokia 5.1 is apparently in the exact middle of their range – it has an octa-core MediaTek Helio P18 SoC paired with up to 3GB RAM and 32GB of internal storage, a 16MP camera with dual LED flash and full HD video recording capabilities – and it even has a headphone jack (and radio, too). It also has a friendly price tag – the price of the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 will buy you four units of the Nokia 5.1.
Asus Zenfone 5 Lite
Last but not least, let us mention a phone that is more expensive than the two options above – the price of the Galaxy Note 9 would only buy you around three units – but its configuration justifies the difference. The Asus Zenfone 5 Lite comes with an octa-core Snapdragon 630 SoC clocked at 2.2 GHz paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. It has a dual camera with LED flash, capable of recording 2160p video at 30fps and a dual selfie camera with a 20-megapixel sensor paired with a 13-megapixel one. It also has goodies like NFC, FM radio, a headphone jack, and many others, plus a battery good for up to 30 hours of talk time.