Communication without overpayments: TOP-5 smartphones under $150

Samsung Galaxy A04 is the youngest representative of the A-series of smartphones from the South Korean brand. The screen matrix is PLS (Samsung's proprietary technology), which is slightly less bright than IPS, but with the same wide viewing angles, and at the same time cheaper.

The RAM and permanent memory are 4 and 64 GB, respectively, it's a pity that the relatively slow eMMC standard is constant. The processor is installed MediaTek Helio P35 with eight energy-efficient cores and PowerVR graphics. This, coupled with the lightweight One UI Core software shell, allows the smartphone to last a very long time on a 5000 mAh battery.

The charging speed is slightly increased to 15W, and the port is now a newfangled swiveling USB Type-C. The 50 MP camera is based on Samsung's proprietary JN1 (1/2.7") sensor. If the lack of an NFC contactless payment chip is a frequent occurrence for inexpensive smartphones, then completely abandoning the fingerprint scanner in favor of face unlock may not be to everyone's liking.

Xiaomi Redmi 10C is one of the most affordable smartphones on the processor of the most popular Qualcomm brand, namely the Snapdragon 680. In fact, this is the same old 660th chip, only transferred to the 6 nm process technology. The architecture of powerful and energy-efficient cores is Cortex-A73 and A75, respectively, and the graphics are Adreno 610.

For comparison, Unisoc and MediaTek processors in this price range have a more productive architecture: A75 + A55. Therefore, Redmi 10C, alas, is not a speed champion. But the progressive technical process, as well as the good optimization of the Android OS specifically for Qualcomm chips, make this smartphone truly long-playing.

Unlike the older Redmi Note line, there is only one music speaker, but it is very loud, do not miss a call even in a noisy room. The NFC contactless payment module is available in the European version of the smartphone, but not in the Chinese one. Be sure to check this point before buying. But the infrared port for controlling household appliances is guaranteed.

Realme C33 is one of the most balanced smartphones under $150. The screen is 6.5 "IPS 720p, and the battery is 5000 mAh. The RAM is solid 4 GB, and the flash memory is as much as 128 GB, and the fast UFS standard. MicroSD memory cards up to 1 TB are also supported (competitors only up to 512 GB).

The processor is Unisoc Tiger T612. Previously, the chips of this brand were considered slow and energy-hungry. But with the release of the Tiger series, the situation has changed dramatically. So, T612 already has a hybrid ARM big.LITTLE architecture. Two powerful Cortex-A75 cores, six energy-efficient Cortex-A55s and a Mali-G57 MC1 graphics accelerator.

It turns out almost a complete analogue of the MediaTek Helio G85, only it costs significantly less. Charging is the usual 10 W via microUSB, but the fingerprint scanner is located in a fashionable side. The main camera with a solid resolution of 50 MP and Quad Bayer technology, which combines four pixels to increase aperture. Additionally, there is a 0.3 MP camera for bokeh and a 5 MP front camera.