Rugged low-cost smartphones under $120

Once upon a time, Samsung actively borrowed ideas from Apple. Later, the Koreans grew out of their younger brother's pants and created their own self—sufficient flagship series Samsung Galaxy S8 64 GB / 2 SIM . What is this background for? To the fact that the Doogee X60L one-on-one copies the appearance of the latest versions of the Galaxy with its elongated body and screen, which smoothly flows into the side frames. Due to this, the Doogee X60L stands out against the background of most faceless low-cost smartphones.

And this is not the only positive difference between a smartphone and its top counterparts. Doogee is a brand much less popular than Xiaomi or Meizu, so buyers need to be attracted by something unusual. In the case of the X60L model, it is a dual main camera, which is a rare beast in devices below $200 – 250. The resolution of the second module is only 8 MP (when the main one has 13 MP) and it does a good job of determining the depth of the frame, thanks to which the smartphone takes quite decent pictures in good light.

The next positive point is the presence of a fingerprint scanner on the back cover. The scanner here is of fairly high quality — almost always the smartphone is unlocked in the blink of an eye. According to official data, this is 0.1 – 0.2 seconds. It feels about the same, although in some cases, for example, in the cold, he may think for a couple of seconds.

In terms of equipment, the Doogee X60L looks quite standard for this class of smartphone: a 4-core Mediatek MT6737 processor, 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of built-in storage plus support for micro SD memory cards with a separate slot. But the processor frequency is slightly lower than the average temperature in the ward — 1.3 GHz versus 1.4 -1.5 GHz for fellow price tags. Not to say that this disadvantage creates big problems in work, surfing the web, social networks and non-demanding applications work quite smoothly. But heavy applications or games make the smartphone sweat and noticeably slow down. However, stable 25 – 30 frames per second in WOT on minimalks for such a price is a decent result.

Naturally, there is no such thing as a lot of honey without tar. In the case of the Doogee X60L, this is the screen. According to the passport, this is an IPS display with a diagonal of 5.5" with a low resolution of 1280x740 pixels (compared to competitors' 1440x720) and a modest margin of brightness, which complicates reading in the sun. Otherwise, the smartphone gives a decent picture with natural colour reproduction and without noticeable grain.

As you can see, in terms of equipment and appearance, the Doogee X60L stands out somewhat among competitors, so the main question is trust in the brand — will it show reliability at the level of Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 32 GB / 3 GB , will jambs with build quality or software come out over time?

The Neffos brand, created under the wing of TP-Link, is hardly a newcomer to the smartphone market. The company has chosen a clear positioning for the market of affordable smartphones and with each new model they are trying to hone the skills of creating high-quality state employees.

For its cost, the design of the Neffos C9A pleasantly surprises: the smartphone has thin frames and looks quite modern. A slight dissonance is caused only by a rather large logo in the lower part of the case. Over the past couple of years, we have managed to get out of the habit of facial logos. The smartphone case is made neatly, there is nothing to complain about: high-quality plastic, decent assembly, nothing is backlash and does not bend.

The smartphone is equipped with an IPS display with a diagonal of 5.45" with a resolution of 1440x720 pixels and a modern aspect ratio of 18:9. A screen with an acceptable margin of brightness, saturated and contrasting. At the same time, there is absolutely no oleophobic coating on the glass, so it gets stained very quickly, and stains are wiped off with difficulty. However, the presence of a protective film in the delivery package should correct this.

Neffos C9A runs a 4-core MediaTek processor with a clock speed of 1.5 GHz, 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal memory. Its performance is quite modest, light freezes may appear when running several applications, and the built-in video chip does not always cope with modern games. However, it would be too much to demand from a smartphone with such a price tag.

In the pull-out tray, you can find slots for SIM cards and one slot for a microSD memory card. You won't have to sacrifice anything, as in smartphones with hybrid slots, so this is a definite plus. Otherwise, the smartphone has a standard equipment for the class (3020 mAh battery, micro USB port, no NFC), which is diluted by a fingerprint scanner. If more famous manufacturers in entry-level devices can afford to abandon the scanner, brands like Neffos need to attract customers with something special.

Speaking of the battery. In Neffos C9A, it is removable, which on paper gives several advantages. Firstly, it is an opportunity to replace the battery itself in case of its failure. Secondly, it simplifies the possible repair process (the path to the insides of the smartphone turns out to be shorter) and, accordingly, the cost of this repair. Another question is: how much does all this apply to a low-cost smartphone that is clearly not bought for a year.

The Redmi line Xiaomi is once again conquering the low-cost segment of smartphones. The formula for success has remained unchanged from previous models: add almost all the functions necessary for an ordinary person, mix with performant iron and season with a delicious price tag.

The case material is matte plastic, but if you don't know about it, you will probably take it for metal. The build quality is excellent, and nothing betrays the modest price of the gadget. In general, the design of the novelty practically does not differ from the previous model Xiaomi Redmi 5a 16 GB / 2 GB .

But the filling of the smartphone is not to say that it has been pumped up a lot, but it has changed fundamentally. First of all, this concerns the 4-core Snapdragon chip with a frequency of 1.4 Ghz, instead of which the Redmi 6a has a 4-core processor from competitor Mediatek (operating frequency 2 GHz). The amount of RAM remained at the level of 2 GB. This, of course, is not the limit of dreams, but it will be quite enough for the daily use of system resources.

In everyday use, this bundle allows Redmi 6a to work at the level of a strong state employee: the smartphone handles with simple tasks without hesitation, and in resource-intensive applications it begins to slow down slightly. Still, the hardware of the gadget does not have to turn over "heavy" games.

In comparison with the previous version of Redmi, the IPS screen has also improved, which has increased from 5 to 5.45". The screen is now HD+ (resolution 1440x720 pixels), while the Redmi 5a had a simple HD. The screen is bright enough, the colour scheme is well balanced out of the box, but if desired, everything can be reconfigured for yourself. There's nothing unusual here. Much more interesting is the fact that thanks to the frameless design, the increase in the diagonal of the screen practically did not affect the size of the smartphone.

Inherited from the previous model, the smartphone got a similar set of cameras: 13 MP main and 5 MP front with "buns" in the form of HDR support and a system for recognizing the user's gender and age when taking selfies. In the latter case, there is also the Beautify mode, which allows you to adjust the tone of the face, enlarge the eyes, even out the skin colour or make yourself slimmer. On the one hand, such things have been in applications like Facetune for a long time, but it's much more convenient to get it all out of the box.

Now about the functionality. Xiaomi Redmi 6a can work simultaneously with two SIM cards and use a memory card. No hybrid slots. There is no fingerprint sensor in the Redmi 6a, as well as an infrared port. After all, this is a low-cost model, and something should justify its price. The 3000 mAh battery, familiar to the class, gives a standard day of work in loaded mode, a couple of days in quiet mode, or 5-6 hours of maximum activity (games, Wi–Fi enabled, brightness at 100%).

The cherry on the cake is the cost of the device, which only a few units can compete with.

In terms of design, Meizu has settled down for a long time, and new smartphones rarely differ from each other in appearance. The M8c, which is sealed in a plastic case with rounded edges, is no exception. The surface of the case is matte, so the smartphone does not particularly slide in the hand and collects fingerprints.

Most of the front panel of the Meizu M8c is occupied by an IPS screen with 2.5D glass. The screen has a diagonal of 5.45" (resolution 1440x720) with a fashionable aspect ratio of 18:9. The screen quality is at a good level for this class. But what sets it apart from the competition is an accurate light sensor, like Batman's butler. For smartphones for $100, this is a real luxury.

For IPS, the colour palette seems slightly cool, but in everyday life it is completely unnoticeable. Moreover, it can be adjusted in the settings. The evening eye-friendly mode is also turned on there, which weakens the brightness with colour rendering and minimizes the number of blue shades in the spectrum, which, according to scientists, positively affects the quality of sleep.

This time, the low-cost Meizu received a Qualcomm processor, not MediaTek – a quad-core Snapdragon 425 with Adreno 308 video. There are no RAM and storage options – only 2/16 GB. In everyday tasks (surfing, social networks, etc.), the Meizu M8c shows good performance, although it can sometimes switch to a leisurely mode or "twitch" several times while scrolling through work screens or running applications. However, the specification of the device and the price tag clearly indicates that this is far from the newest platform and such a smartphone is poorly suited for games.

The advantages of the Meizu M8c are worth recording the battery life: to discharge the smartphone in a day, you will have to try hard. Here it is worth saying thanks to the modest hardware and the lack of games. In general, the smartphone lives in the average load mode for almost two days, which is an excellent result for a battery of 3070 mAh.

In general, the Meizu M8c is one of the most affordable FullView smartphones with decent functionality, good indicators of battery life and high quality materials.

The main task facing the manufacturer of an inexpensive smartphone is to maintain a balance between quality, functionality and its price. It seems that in the case of Honor 7A, Huawei did everything right. Yes, there may not be enough pieces like NFC and a fingerprint scanner, but otherwise there is a good camera, a quite tolerable quad-core processor and the eighth version of Android. What else do you need for $100?

In terms of design, Huawei did not bother and made an outwardly almost complete copy of previous models like Huawei Mate 10 Lite 64 GB / 4 GB . This is the same rounded smartphone with a frameless design, a fairly large screen and the Honor logo, which Huawei promotes as a separate brand. From the outside, it seems that the case is metal, as in older models, but in fact it turns out to be plastic with several small metal inserts. However, the case is assembled perfectly, the plastic is durable, there is absolutely nothing to claim here.

The Honor 7A has a 5.45-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1440x720 and an aspect ratio of 18:9. If we talk about subjective impressions, then the screen is decent. It is contrasting, the colour spectrum looks saturated with a deep black colour, almost like AMOLED displays. Someone may not like a slight roll in cold tones, but this is easily corrected in the screen settings menu.

The smartphone is equipped with a Mediatek MT6739 quad-core processor with a maximum frequency of 1500 GHz. The PowerVR GE8100 video accelerator, 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage, which can be expanded with a memory card, complete the picture. Cards with a volume of up to 256 GB are supported, which is enough for several smartphone lifetimes. The performance of this bundle is enough for daily use, but you should not think about demanding games. In everyday work, the interface does not slow down and does not hang, although it will not be possible to call it lightning fast.

Huawei smartphones have almost always photographed well, and this device is no exception. By modern standards, the picture turns out to be imperfect (but this is a state employee!), but its main feature is the ability to keep the quality bar at approximately the same level in different lighting conditions. This is a definite plus, since the quality of photos in low light drops several times in most inexpensive models. Otherwise, the camera takes colour-saturated pictures that periodically lack detail.

Thanks to all this, the Honor 7A will be a popular model, because it offers a rare quality of assembly and materials for an inexpensive device, coupled with an optimized platform and traditional reliability for Huawei, which the company strictly monitors.