Affordable Android Smartphones Offer a Big Bang for Your Buck

I’m in the privileged position that I regularly get to try the latest and greatest flagship Android-powered smartphones from leading manufacturers such as Honor, Google Pixel, Oppo and Samsung. Phone-makers unsurprisingly want me to try their very best models, which often cost up to £1,500, and this means I seldom spend a decent amount of time with lower-tier variants.

As a result, I set myself a challenge over the past few months of putting my primary SIM into phones that I wouldn’t typically use. This exercise has ended badly in the past, and I’ve given up on a phone after just a few days or, in some cases, a few hours. But how things have changed.

First up in this challenge was the Nothing Phone (2a), priced between £350 and £400, This is Nothing’s mid-range offering, but a long way from the usual £1,000-plus devices that I’m used to.

Nothing Phone (2a)

The colour, materials and finish are superb — it certainly feels like a quality product. And powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 7200 Pro chipset, the performance is snappy, proving more than enough for most of the regular tasks I need from a phone. For me, a smartphone is first and foremost a communications device, but the camera is also extremely important as I take lots of pictures every day as a form of lifelogging. Whether it’s standard resolution or a 2x or 3x zoom, the pictures are excellent and the quality is definitely good enough for most of the general snapshots I usually capture. After several weeks of use, I had no complaints.

Next, I turned to the TCL 50 Pro Nxtpaper 5G, an even lower-cost product currently retailing for a mere £230 on Amazon. It’s a good-looking phone, notably thanks to its anti-reflective Nxtpaper screen technology and the ability to alternate between a colour screen and an e-ink-like display similar to an Amazon Kindle. TCL has cleverly marketed this function with the strapline “switch on to switch off” to take advantage of the current trend of digital detoxing and using your phone less. We spoke to Stefan Streit, chief marketing officer of TCL Europe, about the importance of screen technology and digital detox as part of our Predictions event — watch the replay here.

TCL 50 Pro Nxtpaper 5G

I have to put my hand up and admit I didn’t think I’d last for more than a few days using the TCL phone, but a few weeks later I was still going strong and the phone was mostly able to cope with everything I wanted to do.

Like the Nothing device, the overall design and finish of the phone are excellent. I had a lot of fun showing the TCL phone to friends and colleagues — some of whom are very knowledgeable about smartphones — and asking them how much they thought it cost. In most cases, people guessed somewhere between £350 and £500 based on the hardware design without actually using the device.

That said, I certainly had to compromise on camera quality, but it did the job for a quick picture in decent lighting conditions to share on WhatsApp or social media. The main area where it lagged more-expensive products was the performance of the MediaTek Dimensity 6300 processor. This was not immediately obvious until I performed tasks such as taking a screenshot and editing it. It took a moment for the picture to appear on the screen and then a little longer to be cropped.

I recently noted with interest that my friends over at the Phones Show Chat podcast have been having similar discussions about low-tier Android devices over the past few months and awarded the Motorola Edge 50 Neo, which costs £330, a “phone of the year” accolade at the end of 2024 (see Ted’s review here).

This got me thinking about what this means for the smartphone industry, and when I discussed this topic with an industry friend, he suggested that similarities could be drawn to clothing, for example, a pair of jeans. These days, you can buy a pair of very low-cost supermarket-branded jeans and the quality, fit and longevity aren’t a million miles away from a premium pair of branded jeans from a fashion company like Armani. Admittedly, the fashion brand offers you the kudos and prestige of a high-end product, and the zip, buttons and fabric are better quality. But if all you want is a pair of trousers, you can’t go wrong with the supermarket brand.

For Android smartphones, I contend that low-mid to mid-range Android smartphones have become good enough for people who “just want a phone”. Furthermore, phones that cost between £300 and £500 typically come with three years of software and security updates — and in some cases that’s extended to five years. This means these lower-priced products are no longer obsolete after a couple of years.

At a time when all phone-makers are struggling to grow profits and market share, this probably isn’t great news, but it’s a real win for consumers. It’s another reflection of the growing maturity of the smartphone segment. It also underlines the very evident polarization of the market.

I realize plenty of consumers are happy to pay five times the cost of the TCL 50 Pro Nxtpaper to get the latest and greatest iPhone or Android smartphone, and our research underlines this. They’ll benefit from better performance, a much better camera, innovations such as AI-powered services and more, but these clearly aren’t must-haves for all consumers. It’s a typical reflection of the advancements in all product categories, be it cars, TVs or domestic appliances. Flagship features trickle down the price curve over time, and ultimately, it’s the consumer who wins.