Poll results: this is the best mid-range smartphone right now
We all love to read about flagship smartphones: flashy, sexy and powerful, they represent the best of what OEMs can make. But let's be honest, most of us are on a budget and are looking for smartphone that can deliver the most useful features for less money. That's why the mid-range exists.
Last week we asked you to choose your favorite mid-priced (roughly $200 - $400) smartphone in 2019, and the results are in! At the time of writing, there's a clear winner:
Xiaomi once again proves itself to be the master of the mid-range segment. We were impressed with the Pocophone F1 last year, but it's the new Redmi Note 7 that claims the prize here with a whopping 22% of the vote. And that's no surprise. In our review of the smartphone, we found it to be an excellent device, unrivaled in its price range.
A solid runner-up presents itself in the form of the Moto G7, with many community members recommending it in the comments section. We've had our hands on the Moto G7 Plus and G7 Power. Ultimately, while this range tends to lack raw power, the attractive price makes G-line a good alternative.
I'm surprised that Samsung's new A-class and Nokia's recent offerings didn't seem to tempt to many, despite being venerable names in the business with some interesting features in the mid-range market. What do you think of their market strategy in this area?
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Did you or will you buy a mid-range smartphone this year? Which one will it be?
Only time will tell if more North American consumers can embrace beyond what we get offered...
I notice a general misunderstanding of the hardware on offer. In that list I would put the Samsung A50 on the top of the pile.
The thing is, the Redmi Note 7 Pro has an SD675 lurking inside, and that will match the internals of the A50 (maybe). The standard Note 7 has a 660 inside and this is not in the same league as the Exynos 9610 in the A50. This will irritate a lot of users because they've seen all the speed test results and the standard Note 7 loads everything much quicker than the A50. Allow me to explain why.
The Sd660 has 8 cores, 6 of which are devoted to low level use, such as loading apps, browsing Web, viewing videos etc. However, this only leaves two performance cores to back up the adreno GPU. The Exynos also has 8 cores, but it only uses 4 for low level tasks. The 660 is using two extra cores to perform these tasks, small wonder it's quicker at loading apps! However, the Exynos is only a small bit behind and this is mainly down to it performing these tasks on a more efficient 10nm process. So, those 4 cores are almost as fast as 6 cores on the 660.
Are you with me so far? Now, this means that the Exynos has 4 performance cores backing the Mali GPU. This makes a huge difference in games, video rendering etc. On paper you won't get a snapdragon 6xx of any description that'll beat it in the performance area. It's closest match in the Snapdragon range is the 710.
This being said, Xiaomi have performed witchcraft with the Note 7 Pro as it not only loads apps quicker than the A50 but appears to run games like pubg only a few fps slower than the A50.
The A50 may cost a bit more. However, you are getting better game performance, much better screen, NFC, stronger GPS chips and better dac (for better audio through headphones).
Just watch. When the A80 gets tested on pubg hdr the A50 will still be faster.
All this being said. For only a little extra you can pick up a used S9, which has a much better Mali GPU (the A50 has 3 shaders, the S9 has 18).
If there's one takeaway from all this it's 'stop watching YouTubers doing speed tests, app loading is only a small part of the story'.
Thanks for giving your time and sharing the valuable information.
You seem to know a ton about this phone. I have a question, is it true that the Samsung Galaxy A50 has Dolby Atmos?
Here's the deal!
Practically every smartphone is mentioned in this pole is available to purchase online .... but it makes a huge difference when you can walk into a shop (ie Best Buy, FYE, etc), look at it device, decide to buy it - probably get accessories for it!
That makes a huge difference for the consumer! I have yet to see the Samsung A series on par with the international models (and yes North America got screwed by not having the G7 Plus)! Only time will tell if more North American consumers can embrace beyond what we get offered (that's up to the manufacturers to get their devices into the shops)!
Recently got Moto G Power and love it. 3 day battery is outstanding! No more lugging around a big external battery. It is snappy, has plenty of storage and RAM. Plenty good screen and cameras.