Great smartphones are a dime a dozen, and we’ve arrived at a point in time, you don’t have to fork out hefty amounts on a really good device.
For less than RM2,000, there are plenty of great smartphone in the market that offer impressive features, performance, and longevity as well.
Xiaomi Mi 10T series
This was one of 2020’s standout products thanks to its performance-to-price ratio – it retails from RM1,699 but you should be able to find it for a bit less if from reliable retailers.
For that kind of money, you get a Snapdragon 865 5G chipset which was one of the most powerful chipsets of 2020 – and with it, the Xiaomi Mi 10T smartphones could handle almost any game you throw at it; the only exception is, of course, Genshin Impact; heck even 2021 chipsets can’t handle this game properly.
The phones decent photography devices too – the Mi 10T has a 64MP main lens, while the Mi 10T Pro has a 108MP lens. The latter costs RM1,999, so if you don’t really do high-res photography, the regular Mi 10T will do just fine.
The downsides of owning a Mi 10T or Mi 10T Pro is that both phones are very heavy for a modern-day device – they weigh at least 216g and is 9.3mm thick; this makes the phones uncomfortable to hold in one hand. Another drawback to the Mi 10T series is the IPS LCD screens – they don’t produce punchy colours like AMOLED panels do. But a plus point is that they support 120Hz refresh rates!
Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 4G
This phone is the closest you’ll get to a well-rounded flagship experience thanks to its powerful chipset, great build quality, and impressive Super AMOLED display.
One of the biggest draws of the phone is its classy design – the matte finish back panel feels premium while the curved edges of the chassis make the phone easy to hold. Its 190g weight and slim 8.4mm body makes it one of the easiest phones on this list to slip into your pocket.
The Galaxy S20 FE also packs a gorgeous 6.5-inch Super AMOLED panel that makes colours pop – meaning content consumption and social media browsing on this device is a treat.
Under the hood is an Exynos 990 chipset that was also one of the more powerful flagship chipsets of 2020 alongside the Snapdragon 865. The latter is technically the better performing chip, but the Exynos is still a beast in its own right.
For imaging, although the Galaxy S20 FE doesn’t have a high-res lens – it’s 12MP triple-camera setup still gets the job done thanks to Samsung’s reliable photography software.
vivo V21 5G
If fancy photography is what you’re after – particularly in the selfie department – the vivo V21 5G is a good option. It offers a 64MP triple lens setup at the back, alongside an impressive 44MP selfie shooter – all while priced at RM1,899.
For selfies, you get high-res shots thanks to that 44MP shooter; on top of that, there’s also OIS video recording too even on the front lens. In poor lighting conditions, the Super Night Selfie feature helps you take brighter shots with minimal noise.
If conditions are really bad, you can also use the Dual Selfie Spotlight feature, that will brighten up your face using two bright lights located at the top of your phone.
The main camera lenses are capable of getting you sharp images with decent colour reproduction – while the 64MP camera can get you more detailed shots that you can use for physical prints as well.
Under the hood is a MediaTek Dimensity 800U chipset which will do fine at running popular games like Mobile Legends and Call of Duty Mobile without stuttering. With the addition of the phone’s ability to use 3GB of storage to use as temporary RAM, the vivo V21 can handle multitasking well too!
POCO F3
This is the most affordable phone in the list, which makes it one of the best bang-for-your-buck options – this phone retails at from RM1,399 for the 6GB+128GB model, while the 8GB+256GB version only costs RM1,699.
For that price, you’re getting one heck a package – powering the phone is a Snapdragon 870 chipset which was introduced early this year. The chip outperforms the older Snapdragon 865 by some margin in both CPU and GPU performance, while maintaining impressive power efficiency as well.
Another plus point for the POCO F3 is its 6.67-inch AMOLED display that pushes a 120Hz refresh rate, along with support for HDR10+ and 100% DCI-P3 colour output.
All this fits in a 7.8mm thin body so it’ll still fit in your pockets nicely. On top of that, you also get a dual stereo speaker system that’s Dolby Atmos certified.
This is an ongoing write-up and more suggestions will be included soon; so, stay tuned on our website for updates!
