A wallet in a smartphone: TOP 5 available devices with NFC

ZTE has recently been good at inexpensive smartphones, which pleasantly surprise with their versatility, but after the release they remain in the shadow of Xiaomi, Huawei and other larger players. So, for example, it was with ZTE Blade 20 Smart 128GB 128 GB / 4 GB : for its $150, it seemed almost an perfect entry-level smartphone. And the same fate probably awaits the ZTE Blade A7, released in the summer of 2020, which could compete for the title of "the best tube for $100".

The ZTE Blade A7 is designed for users who need moderately simple but functional devices with a bunch of useful features like an NFC, a well-assembled case, VoLTE, a wide-angle camera, a capacious battery and a high-quality conversational speaker that transmits speech well. At the same time, it cannot be said that the iron part is lagging far behind. Yes, the MediaTek Helio P22 processor has never grabbed stars from the sky, but it gets its 87K points in the AnTuTu test and handles with basic tasks quite deftly. And 3 GB of RAM with 64 GB of storage and a memory card slot give a small reserve for the future. Anyway, this is not the hundred-dollar "state employee" of two years ago, starting to lag when launching a calculator or gallery.

At the same time, the ZTE Blade A7 2020 does not have any tangible disadvantages that can spoil the feeling of buying. Rather, these are compromises and trifles, they are more or less inherent in many entry-level devices. We are already used to the fact that glossy rear covers quickly collect fingerprints, but the Blade A7 is out of competition in this regard: the slightly rough texture of the back cover instantly collects a pack of prints, which dry up after a couple of hours, turning into a layer of dirt. The oleophobic coating on the display is also so-so. And the IPS display itself does not shine with colour rendering quality. But the resolution of 1560x720 pixels is not annoying at all. Still, on a 6-inch display, the grain is not too striking (pixel density is 286 ppi). Well, we won't even find fault with the camera, thanks for the wide-angle object, and that's it.

Last year's Xiaomi Redmi 8 64 GB / 4 GB didn't take off at all and looked like a loser against the background of a more balanced Redmi Note 8. In 2020, the guys from Xiaomi took a deep breath and are ready to rush back into the fray for the title of the best inexpensive smartphone of the year. The new Redmi 9 is not just a step forward, but several big jumps towards the future. When else will you see a good Full HD display, a high-quality quad camera, Wi-Fi 5, USB-C, NFC and a 5020 mAh battery with fast charging in a smartphone for $150? So we didn't see it either.

Smartphones of the Redmi line have always been slightly faster than competitors. But not Redmi 8, which was supplied with an ancient Snapdragon 439 processor, found along with the remains of a Canadian tyrannosaurus. In Redmi 9, the situation was corrected and the place of the sluggish processor was taken by Mediatek Helio G80, which gave about a twofold increase in performance. Instead of three gigabytes of LPDDR3 RAM, we got the same three gigabytes, but a faster LPDDR4x. The speed of the internal memory has also increased. It's still eMMC, not UFS, but a higher class. As a result, all this stuff handles well even with demanding toys like World of Tanks: Blitz and Call of Duty: Mobile, giving out 40 ― 50 FPS on average graphics settings. Trottling will periodically remind you of itself by heating and reducing the frequency of the cores, after all, this is a Mediatek processor.

For the first time in this series, the smartphone has the same number of camera modules as the flagship models. The 13 MP main module takes quite decent and well-detailed pictures in good light. But the night mode was cut out for some reason. In turn, portrait, wide-angle and macro cameras add variability, but they do not shine with quality. And we also liked the design of Redmi 9. Xiaomi has worked on the little things and now it looks not much different from smartphones twice, or even three times more expensive. The back cover with the paint shimmering in the light looks more neat and so to speak premium. Less glitter of poverty. The quad camera is now located in the centre of the back cover and is encircled by a small ring that visually connects the camera blocks and flashes together. Well, the colour options came straight from older models like Xiaomi Mi 10 and Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro, thereby further enhancing the similarity.

It's great that for all its advantages, Redmi 9 has no noticeable disadvantages. It looks like Xiaomi has succeeded again.

The Chinese brand Realme, which appeared literally out of nowhere, has made a name for itself in a couple of years and now seriously claims to become the new Meizu and defeat Xiaomi. At least this impression is created in numerous reviews, where new Realme smartphones are called Redmi killers.

A distinctive feature of Realme devices are powerful batteries. If last year manufacturers came to the optimal figure of 4000 mAh, then Realme lures buyers with a 5000 mAh battery. In gentle mode, this can last up to three days without recharging, and fast 18-watt charging allows you to go from 0 to 100% charge in just 55 minutes. In addition to the battery, Realme attracts powerful cameras. In the case of the Realme 6i, we have a camera with a 48 MP main sensor and three auxiliary modules for landscape, portrait and macro shooting. Let's make a reservation right away that miracles are not worth waiting for, the camera shoots exactly for your money: when shooting during the day, good detail with an adequate white balance turns out, but at night the quality is not so good. Although, the included night mode slightly "pulls out" dark areas.

Among other pleasant features, it is important to note the presence of an NFC module, modern Wi-Fi and Bluetooth receivers, and a fairly nimble filling by the standards of this class (Mediatek Helio G80 + Mali-G52 MC2 + 3 GB of LPDDR4x memory + 64 GB storage), which scores 202275 points in the AnTuTu test and handles well with toys of caliber the latest Call of Duty Mobile. The IPS display with a diagonal of 6.5" is also very good: it has good viewing angles, an adequate supply of brightness and close to natural colour reproduction, but with a resolution of only 1600x720 pixels. In fact, it turned out that pixels are not too conspicuous, and watching TV shows and flipping through the news feed on such a screen is surprisingly comfortable.

We have not decided on the attitude to the back cover. The unusual texture with vertical stripes looks fresh, but not to say that it is beautiful. It looks especially strange with green coloring, which constantly flashed in advertising materials. If we take the controversial design and display resolution out of the brackets, then we will get a successful smartphone. The only problem is that it has few distinctive features and too many competitors.

A couple of years ago, Samsung clicked its heels, turned 180 degrees and came up with a new approach to the market of affordable smartphones. First, middle-class tubes of the type Samsung Galaxy A30 32 GB / 3 GB with Super AMOLED displays and a good filling, then simpler devices like the Galaxy A10 and A10s arrived. Released in the second half of 2019, AXXs smartphones became a logical continuation of this trend, although they did not bring anything new.

If you put a Galaxy A30 and A30s on the table, you will hardly distinguish them. The design, dimensions, size of the display ― all this remained the same. From a technical point of view, a pretty good Super AMOLED matrix is used with a harsh, but overall colour reproduction and a good margin of brightness. Despite the same dimensions, for some reason the display resolution was reduced from 2340 x 1080 to 1560 x 720 pixels. Not to say that it somehow greatly interferes with the use of a smartphone. Especially if you rarely play games or watch videos in high quality. But in general, such a solution looks strange, Super AMOLED screen with HD+ resolution ― who came up with such a combination?

In terms of hardware and design, this is quite an ordinary modern tube that handles with everyday tasks, but can choke on demanding games and resource-intensive applications. The main stumbling block was the proprietary Exynos 7904 processor, which looks cool only in the fantasies of the company's marketers, but in fact knocks out a little less than 110K points in the AnTuTu multicore test, only slightly ahead of the old manSnapdragon 636. For a smartphone for $100 is a normal option, for $200 is not enough. Well, at least they didn't spare RAM.

Unlike the Galaxy A30, the updated s-version stands out for its design. The smartphone has a new design with a geometric pattern that visually divides the back cover in half, giving the appearance a certain zest. But the front of the smartphone is slightly different from the legion of low-cost smartphones with a cut-out drop. Of the other chips of the model, we will highlight a new additional wide-angle sensor for 8 MP, modern communication modules, a 4000 mAh battery with fast charging, an NFC module, a USB-C port.

The Chinese brand OPPO belongs to the well-known Chinese concern BBK and has recently been among the top five global smartphone manufacturers with the largest turnover. However, OPPO is not as prominently represented on the east european market as Xiaomi and Huawei, so they have to be smart, luring buyers. For example, in the recent low-cost OPPO A5, we were lured by features like reverse charging and stereo speakers, in the OPPO A52 released a little later, the balance shifted towards more useful functions. Thanks to this, the OPPO A52 has become one of the most powerful and "tenacious" smartphones in the price category up to $ 200.

The heart of the smartphone is a Snapdragon 665 chip with Adreno 610 graphics and 4 GB of RAM. The volume of the built-in storage is 64 GB, there is also a separate slot for a memory card with a volume of up to 256 GB. In general, for the $200 model, the iron balance turned out to be excellent, most competitors either have a weaker processor or less RAM. This is confirmed by the high results in "synthetics" — in the AnTuTu OPPO A52 multicore test, it received about 178K points.

The model has a large actually phablet 6.5-inch display with a resolution of 2400 x 1080 pixels. By default, the screen shows a good colour coverage and a slight bias towards cold shades, which can be corrected in the settings. In general, the display leaves a positive feeling, and a large margin of brightness allows you to work with it even in the scorching sun. Checked personally. Also, the screen stands out because instead of the usual cutout in the form of droplets or bangs, the front camera literally http://ek.ua/list/122/pr-38237 /">carved into it.

Photographs a smartphone with four main modules (12+8+2+2 MP), equipped with artificial intelligence technologies, and a good front camera with a resolution of 16 MP. Despite the number of modules, the camera is typical for an inexpensive smartphone and does not pretend to be anything more than new pictures for Instagram. Another big plus of the OPPO A52 is the rich layout. Here you have an NFC, a capacious 5000 mAh battery with fast charging, and USB-C with modern wireless communication modules. Don't forget about stereo speakers and a nice-looking and well-assembled case. For this money, it's not even clear what else to want. Therefore, it remains only to praise OPPO and wish in the future not to be sprayed on a hundred models a year, but to release smartphones just as rarely and aptly.