The story about why sometimes it's better to buy a cheap smartphone

Beautiful appearance always attracts attention. Manufacturers began to pay more attention.

Recently on one of our sites out the material that and the fact that they may well replace the flagships of people who need a tough camera. For example, some models from different manufacturers, the argument boiled down to the fact that the flagship can not offer anything fundamentally new, but cheap brands are successfully using in its smartphones portfolio that a couple of years ago it was very expensive. So they are closing the gap between “leaders”. The other day I happened to be on the road with the affordable smartphone, and I am willing to share what I felt.

Advantages of cheap smartphone

First and foremost, I want to tell you why I brought it cheap smartphone. The fact that I went to the Oktoberfest beer festival, which is traditionally held in Munich in late September — the beginning of October. I have trained myself to the fact that the road is always necessary to have a backup smartphone — you never know what. As a rule, I took or one of their old devices, which have not had time to sell, or one of the editorial flagships. This time I decided that it is not necessary to carry two expensive smartphone for such activities. Moreover, in addition to the festival, planned trips to the mountains, where the smartphone can be damaged or lost.

Not so long ago we have purchased for different editorial needs of several low-cost smartphones, among which was a pair of models , Jinga Picasso Note, BQ Brave and HP i6. The last I took with him.

The Choice fell on him as the other smartphones I already know very well, and with different models of these brands are encountered repeatedly, and with a Haier before this, had Affairs. I decided to stop work had not yet started, he should not, but more from him to me and not necessary. Needed just a spare phone.

Smartphone under 10 000

The Cost of Haier i6, on which fell my choice, is about 7 000, which is quite a bit even against low-end segment. That's why I chose it. It seems to work quite well, but do not mind losing if something happens.

At the airport, it's hard to sit without a smartphone in hand.

The First joy that I have such a smartphone happened to me at the airport. Somehow I broke a paperclip to eject , which I fastened to a backpack. She just has a bent tip, and when I began to straighten it, it broke off. In the end, I couldn't insert your travel SIM card in iPhone 11 Pro, which was my main on this trip. The only candidate to install it was it seemed to this emergency, generic. At this point I reconsidered the advantages of a removable back cover that is not loved.

Simcoe I then moved, but that's what made me apply to the public sector not as a spare variant. For me, he became a full-fledged addition to the main .

I cannot share the opinion of Henry Ford and transfer it to smartphones. I love the unusual colors for such familiar to us all accessory, but the color is Haier i6 I do not really like the combination of shades. Nothing personal, just a matter of taste. Eventually, I could get used to it and even a little inspired. At the same time, I can't say that such experiments with color is a lot of low-cost smartphones. Let us recall the famous gradients P series and Honor series V.

Can the smartphone replace the flagship

Despite the increase of autonomy in iPhone 11 Pro, which I am now actively testing, the public sector I was very pleased in the background. Five days on the road I loaded it only twice (including a full charge before leaving the house). During this time I used the card, took pictures and made calls. It was not as often as my primary smartphone, but rather to assess the capacity (in Gigabyte it is 3000 mAh) and the efficiency of the smartphone.

Removed the cover and access the SIM cards and the battery. Such a scheme can sometimes be very convenient.

The last time the autonomy I noticed a few months ago when I used some Chinese monster with a battery of 6000 mAh. It was only a plus that smartphone. Otherwise it was rare... Well, you know.

I have always believed that every smartphone is worth about as much as asking for it. If you're willing to buy a flagship, it will be a great machine, if you are ready to by state employees and do not make it to flagship requirements, it is also not likely to disappoint. Now I am once again convinced that smartphones have ceased to divide into good and bad. Just each represents its category. That's the only difference between the categories has decreased.

For work and personal purposes I used Huawei P30 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S10+, OnePlus 7 Pro, 11 Pro, iPhone and many other devices. You can say I'm demanding to speed, but even in the cheaper models 10 000 I don't notice a strong retardation. Of course it is, but it is not as critical as before. That said, however, does not apply to games and demanding applications. Does the public sector lose leaders, and as Yaroslavl “Shinnik” the Munich “Bavaria”.

keyhole in the screen now is, even in the most inexpensivemodels

Navigator for Hiking

I mentioned above that one of the main functions that I have used in NEC i6 was navigation. As the offline maps I use MapsMe. This app I liked before got all of its available features, like voice and walking routes.

probably the best app for offline maps. If you know better, write it in comments. Or .

This time to navigate around the city and Hiking in the mountains I also enjoyed these cards. This is the same app I had on iPhone, but for obvious reasons I prefer to use to navigate a more affordable smartphone. You won't believe this, Haier was fine. The app, for obvious reasons, run a little longer, but worked perfectly.

With a map fun to walk on open spaces

At the beginning I even doubted my decision to trust to guide me on the route to this smartphone, but when I got to the destination, I realized that the fears were unfounded.

Camera cheap smartphone

Such a familiar camera interface

A Pleasant surprise at the autonomy and quality of navigation gave way to mixed feelings in the relationship . If it came to complex scenes, like panoramic views from high contrast, camera malata i6 predictable shrank before advanced solution, applied in iPhone 11 Pro. That's just such a comparison seems a bit odd. Overall it still shoots well and it does not compare with the cameras of smartphones for the same money, released 2-3 years ago. In some scenarios, even quite able to compete with the models of the middle segment.

Shot on Panasonic i6. Scenic views of the lake Lautersee

Shot on Panasonic i6. Bright picture with a slight tendency to over-saturation.

Shot on Panasonic i6. In the shadows there are small dips, but overall tolerable

Shot on Panasonic i6. Rainy weather in the Bavarian village

Shot on Panasonic i6. Not the most difficult scene, but the camera still worked well.

It is not about a resolution of 13 MP, and about how the camera worked vivid panorama of mountain scenery. For this reason, I don't even take an expensive smartphone, limiting Haier i6 and DJI OSMO Pocket for videos and more pictures. I didn't have to.

Now is no surprise dual main camera in the smartphone. This is another confirmation of the arrival of the flagship technologies in the budget segment.

Inexpensive smartphone vs flagship

All I was doing in the road with Haier i6, once again strengthened my belief that the cost of the smartphone has ceased to strongly influence its quality. Expensive smartphones will naturally run faster, they will have a better camera and they will be more durable. But the public sector can sometimes be more Autonomous. It works not significantly worse if you do not require to max speed in PUBG, and its not so bad to lose or break.

Even that on the screen of my smartphone appeared a couple of scratches, will not make me conclude that he is bad. Good is expensive, but get a scratch on ceramic Samsung Galaxy S10 (Yes, he also eventually scratched) and on the smartphone 7 000, are completely different things.

In addition, given that some state employees, including my Haier i6, equipped with NFC and Android 9, is even more pleasant that the choice is now there for every taste and every wallet. State employees no substitute for a flagship, but they're not as bad as a few years ago.