The mobile phone industry is very competitive. It was back in the day when Nokia and Samsung were revolutionizing the monochromatic tiny-display pocket phones and it is now when the game has changed to a much larger scale. Whether it is the Android vs iOS fight or Apple vs Samsung, the fanboy wars are always in full swing. The companies are also in on the war and each trying really hard to be number one. Well, we, as consumers have gained much in form of products from this constant competition among the giants. Anyhow the game went on another level when Apple decided to price the iPhone X on the $1000 mark. As of now, much of its competition followed and priced their flagships the same or just below the $1000 mark. But fret not, there are still companies out there who care about the middle-class consumer.
Here we have the best cheap underdog flagships that are up to compete with the major flagships (or at least offer much of the same specs).
Pocophone F1
The Pocophone F1 broke the internet when it was first launched by Xiaomi. This smartphone offers much of the same features that the major players of the smartphone industry have. It was like all the major flagships copulated and gave birth to this cheap and amazing flagship. It has a notch and face unlock feature just like the iPhone X and runs on Snapdragon 845 chipset coupled with a 6/8 GB RAM just like the Samsung Galaxy Note 9. The display is as large as it gets; 6.18 inches of Full HD display. The Pocophone also has the trending Dual-camera setup and a 4000mAh battery to support all of this heavy hardware.
Essential PH-1
The fame of the Essential PH-1 is the fact that it was designed by the father of Android; Andy Rubin, himself. Back in 2017, when it was launched, the Essential PH-1 wasn’t as big a hit as one might think and faced a lot of problems and negative reviews. Although, they made the necessary modifications to the software and hardware and have launched it again. This time, it’s better. The best feature of the smartphone is that it was the first non-Pixel smartphone at the time that had Android Pie and still there is only a handful with that option available. Furthermore, Essential promises that the PH-1 is not some phone you’ll have to toss aside next year as it will bring support to the phone in terms of latest software and modular accessories to let it live for years to come. The PH-1 is beautifully designed and fashionably blends ceramic, titanium and glass together. It also has an edge-to-edge 5.7” display with a QHD resolution of 2560 x 1312. The smartphone fashions a 13MP dual-camera setup at the rear and an 8MP front-facing selfie taker. The PH-1 is powered by Snapdragon 835 octa-core processor and 4GB of RAM. Though it does not have any extendable memory, it offers 128GB of internal storage.
OnePlus 6
OnePlus has made its name among the techies as the Flagship Killer. That’s because the OnePlus 6 offers the same specs as the best smartphones on the market but at almost half the price. This time around, it has an all-glass design with the back similar to the Galaxy S9. The OnePlus 6 has jumped on the bandwagon and has added a notch, but the Flagship Killer also has an option to turn it off if you’re against the notches. The AMOLED display stretches a total of 6.28-inches. It sports a Snapdragon 845 chipset married to a 6/8 GB of RAM. The storage is not expandable but you can have plenty with the 256 GB variant. There are 16MP and 20 MP dual-cameras on the rear and a 16MP front-facing camera. A 3300mAh battery powers the whole device. Oh, and it also has Android Pie.
Conclusion:
The competition between so many companies compels them to come up with an even better design than before to take the market. As for the competition, they just have to offer the same in cheap prices. The way smartphones are progressing, pretty soon it seems they’re going to have lightning detection sensor on them and after some years their competition will innovate real-time lightning tracker (if you know what I mean).