A hunt for your next cell phone - Balancing budget and brand

An ideal phone should have a reliable camera, good screen, good looks and build quality, and good audio quality. Another key point to a good phone is the user experience, which should not stutter like YouTube on dial-up Internet.

And it is important that while considering changing a cell phone, one should check if the product satisfies all these criteria with ease.

The last two years have done wonders for the budget minded smartphone buyers. Cheap phones are getting good. And good phones are getting cheap. Because of this, the market is awash with fantastic offers from different brands. To make choosing the perfect smartphone as easy as it can be, let's restrict the budget between Tk 19,000 to Tk 30,000. 

ONEPLUS

OnePlus 3T (Tk 30,000 approx)

While it may be a shoulder-sagging moment that the 5 and 5T does not fall in the range of our midrange category, take solace in the fact that the 3T is not that far behind in terms of its abilities. While it misses out on the dual camera fun, its camera still has enough oomph to keep it relevant and its performance in everyday use still rivals that of flagships twice its price. Couple that with a solid metal build phone and what you have yourself a keeper.

If you are a student and you want to buy it online through their official page, you will also get a 10 percent off once you sign up!

ASUS

Zenfone 3 Max ZC553KL (Tk 20,000)

While there are tonnes of entries from the Zen line that could have made the cut there, the Max stands out amongst the options you should consider. While it ticks the boxes of camera, display, and performance with ease, what it truly excels in is battery performance. With a 4100mAh battery, rest easy that this will last longer than any Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube session you could pull off.

NOKIA

Nokia 6 64GB 4GB (Tk 23,000)

With the 6, Nokia is back in the smartphone arena in a big way. After the abysmal failure that was Windows Lumia, Nokia aimed the 6 for the midrange market with the ever-popular Android OS. So big was the splash that initial stock ran out in one minute after being released. A reliable camera, a good display, good battery, and fluid performance are all staples of the Nokia recipe. Plus you get Nokia's legendary tank-like build quality. 

MOTOROLA

Moto G5 Plus 32GB 4GB (Tk 20,000)

The phone that redefined what budget phones stood for is back for its fifth swing at the market. And just like a good product, it has learned to adapt to changes in the market, such as a bigger 1080p display, faster processor, beefier camera, and a nice big battery to power them all effortlessly. Plus, it has shed its cheap plastic body for a more suave metal unibody design.

Moto Z 64GB 4GB (Tk 30,000)

Thanks to falling prices of flagships after a certain period, you can now have Motorola's Z for the price of an upper tier mid-ranger. And because it's a flagship, it can easily hold its own in the mid-range game. Packing a flagship grade processor, a 5.5" super high resolution display, and Motorola's take on modular designs, aka MotoMods, which allows the additions of things like a big speaker, an extra battery pack, or even a projector by snapping them on the back like a cover. The battery is a little on the small size, but with the aforementioned battery mod, you won't have much to worry.   

HTC

Desire 10 Pro 64GB 4GB (Tk 19,500)

The Desire line has long been the way for HTC fans to enjoy some of the features present in HTC's more expensive line-ups, and that tradition continues with the 10 Pro. It borrows things like HTC's famous dual speaker setup, a super high resolution camera, a big 1080p display, a gorgeous design and a modest battery to keep the phone going all day.

HUAWEI

Honor 8 (Tk 27,000)

If your first criteria is to turn heads, look no further than the Honor 8. With its striking blue colour which shines in the light, there is no denying that this is probably the best looking device in this lineup. And looks aren't the only thing that this excels on as it has a 5.2" 1080p panel, a fast processor to keep things silky smooth, and the ever trendy dual camera setup to give good low light pictures.

XIAOMI

Mi A1 64GB 4GB (Tk 20,500)

Xiaomi has a good number of devices that fall quite nicely in budget, but looking closely, most of them are too similar to give fair judgement. Enter, the Mi A1. Packing in a dual camera setup, a very handsome metal unibody look and feel, a big FullHD panel, and a perfectly respectable 3080mAh battery, it stands heads and shoulders above some of their other more offerings.

Mi Max 2 64GB 4GB (Tk 21,000)

The Max 2 is the other stand-out offer in the Xiaomi stable. There is no other way of saying this, but the Max 2 is an absolute beast when it comes to multimedia. It has the largest screen and battery in this list. It has the same processor as the A1 so performance is the same and it also has a good camera to capture all your precious Instagram moments.

Let the cell-phone hunt begin.

Photo: Collected