Intro:
Okay, let me show you something interesting. This is the upcoming No 4, it will launch in India soon for 30 to 35,000, and the Tutu score is 14 L 79,000. Again, Motto H50 Pro, same price, however, see the Tutu score is nearly half. But wait, picture this: this is Paco X6 Pro, 25,000, much lesser than these two, but see Tutu scores is 13 lack.
What? Like, if I graph it out here, a 25,000 score is here, and a 30,000 score is here, and another 30,000 score is here. Like, huh? Is processor still the most important thing while you buy a smartphone in 2024, or are there other factors to consider? Or simply put, how to buy a perfect smartphone in 2024? The answer: this Post.
Like, we have tried about 100 plus smartphones now, we visited service centers of each phone company, and this is the only Post you need to Read to buy a perfect smartphone in 2024. Welcome to another episode of TWW explains, and we'll talk from our practical experience, not just by reading spec sheets.
If you read spec sheets, subscribe so we don’t have to. Let's start with the first thing that you notice after unboxing: the design. Now, this is one area I would say it has seen big improvements in the budget segment phones.
Like this Realm X or even this Redmi 12, they cost around 10,000 rupees, and they all have similar stuff build-wise: plastic body, plastic frame, headphone jack, and hybrid SIM card slot, meaning two SIM cards or one SIM plus one micro SD card.
Good thing is the phones look very nice. I mean, see this Realm 12X, it looks like a premium phone now. The higher you go in price, the build starts to get better, better, and better. At 20,000, like this Lava or Infinite, you get a curved display.
I'll come to display specs in just a moment, but this curliness in the phones makes it easy to hold and fun to watch videos in, and overall it feels premium. Going up to around 25 to 30,000, this is where you start to see extra features being added on phones like the Nothing Phone 2A, which gives you a unique glyph light, or take this Moto H50 Pro, for instance, it has a vegan leather finish, so grippy to hold, plus you also get a metal frame.
Basic:
Quick question: do you know which was the first phone to have a vegan leather finish? Let us know in the comments. Now, if I move up the price like OnePlus 12R or even this S23 Ultra, only two features are added in build quality:
one is a glass back and second is better glass protection or IP rating. Other than this, the design of the phones may change from brand to brand, but the functional features of the build remain the same. Now it’s your choice how important build quality is to you.
For me, 25 to 30,000 is my sweet spot for design, because at the end of the day, we all will just buy a case. Now, for a lot of us, our phones are the primary source of watching movies or the IPL. The display is an aspect that is very important to me because no matter what you do with the phone, you'll be always looking at it, right? And in that aspect, I would say there are a few things I would always recommend.
Like, number one, try to get an AMOLED screen. I know this is common knowledge by now, but let me demonstrate. This phone has an LCD, and this one has an AMOLED. If I turn off the lights, see the blacks on the LCD look gray, whereas it is completely black on the AMOLED. So, watching movies on an AMOLED display is always good.
Plus, you also get an always-on display, so that's a bonus. Number two, ensure that the display is Full HD Plus. In normal language, it means 1080p. Now, I know like the higher you go, like on this expensive VI X100 Pro, you get support for 2K or even 4K displays in smartphones, but honestly, I've used all of these in real life.
Hands down, 1080p is absolutely good. The amount of money you have to pay for that 2K and 4K display is not worth it in my opinion. And number three would be refresh rate. Here, have a look side by side in slow motion.
This is running 60Hz, and this is on 120Hz. See, the 120Hz looks so smooth, so scrolling and all of that feels more fluid. Let any fruit company tell you anything, but it should be 90 or 120Hz, and most phones above 20,000, like Motorola, IU, Nothing, Realm, Samsung, all of them have these three features.
Now, if you go higher, like this OnePlus 12, you get something called LPO display. So see here, if I’m scrolling the display, it is in 120Hz, but when I’m not doing anything, the display comes back at 1Hz. This is variable refresh rate and it saves battery life.
Features:
It’s a good-to-have feature. Now, to explain the camera, let's take three smartphones at three different price segments. At 11,000, we have the Realm 11X, and at around 30-35,000, we have the upcoming No 4, and then we have the flagship S24. During the daytime, you’ll see all three phones take decent photos.
Yes, the Realm 12X is average, but it is not bad. The photos are passable. However, if you lower the lights, this is where the money kicks in. Like, clearly, the No 4 and the S24 have better picture quality than the Realm 12X, which is completely understandable. In fact, the higher you go in price, the better camera features you get.
As I see, there are a few things to know about when picking a phone for camera. Firstly, megapixel isn’t everything. We have done a dedicated video on that. We have tested 12 to 200-megapixel phones. If you want, you can go check that video out after watching this one. Also, if you’re into selfie videos making reels and all, ensure the phone does 4K selfie video.
And finally, it’s common knowledge that depth cameras and 2 MP macro cameras are useless. Rather, having an ultra-wide-angle lens or even a telephoto lens is better. As a ground rule, under 20-25,000, you get one good main camera; rest everything is below average. Under 30,000, you start seeing good main cameras as well as good ultra-wide-angle lenses or telephoto lenses, and then for good videos, you’ll have to spend somewhere at.
At least 40 to 50,000, see Frank speaking, this camera segment is so huge that we can do a full dedicated video on it. Let us know in the comment section if you want a detailed video on that. Now, performance is a very interesting story here.
Let me go one by one. At around 10,000, phones usually have a CPU that gets the job done. This Redmi 12, for example, does regular stuff like phone calls, watching videos, casual Subway Surfer, and all is fine, but if you push it, playing BGMI or even photo editing, it will struggle. At around 20 to 25,000, you will get good performance but with a bargain. Take this Poco X6 Pro, for instance. For the price, the performance is off the charts.
Like in our testing, you could play Genshin Impact very smoothly. Plus, this phone is tuned mainly for performance, so you also get extra features like frame interpolation and all of that. However, all of this comes at the cost of mediocre camera. So see here, all the photos that we took, the skin tone is very off. Around the 30-35 price point, you have two choices.
On one hand, you can go all in on a performance-centric phone like this No 4. See, AnTuTu scores are almost like a flagship phone, but then you will not get extra features. Or you have phones like the Moto H50 Pro. Performance is decent and you get a lot of extra features like IP rating, wireless charging, excellent software.
So, in this range, you at least have an option: more performance or more features. Choice is yours. Beyond this, that is above 40,000, pick any phone and chances are you will have very good performance. That's because phones either have a flagship chip or last year's flagship chip, and both of these are more than enough to play mobile games like BGMI, Genshin Impact, or even do video editing. Now, coming to software, here price doesn't matter.
I would say there are two major sentiments we all look for. First is the Android version, come years of update. As of 24, all new phones, budget or expensive, should come with Android 14 right out of the box. But when it comes to the update story, it's different. See, this is Samsung A52s. This launched in 2021 with Android 11.
Samsung promised three years of software updates, and see, it is currently running on Android 14. So, from our experience, brands like Samsung, Google, OnePlus, and all, they do deliver on their update promise. That being said, other brands like Motorola or Xiaomi, while they do promise the update, they give it very late.
See, this Moto S30, it is still running on Android 13, that is one year old. And the second thing is when it comes to software, is bloatware. Now, I'll make it simple and straight for you. If you want a clean Android software experience, go for phones like Nothing, Motorola, OnePlus, and of course, Google. That is top tier.
Then you have other brands like Samsung. They don't give you ads, but you do get a few first-party software, some notifications, all of that. And then you have phones from Redmi, Realme, Vivo, IU. You get tons of third-party bloatware. See, this VI X100 Pro, this is a flagship phone, and even this has ads. So, I'll make things simple for you regarding software with this tier. And last, the biggest point, service center experience. So, last year, we did this video on smartphone service center experience. We also did a Green Line issue on OnePlus service center.
Conclusion:
Now, service center experience is highly dependent on the area you live in, but here's how we would rate service center experience of brands in detail, based on our experience throughout the year. Other than this, there are a few common things which I should mention.
Almost all new phones in 2024, about 12,000, will be 5G, and most phones should easily last you one day of use on battery. Few exceptions are there with compact phones or flip phones. And yeah, that was our take on what you should look out for when buying a smartphone.
We kept this video simple and practical for you guys. Like, we have used all the phones that we mentioned in the list. Videos for them are up on the channel. Let us know in the comment section what is the most important thing for you when you buy a smartphone. And as always, I’ll see you in the next one.
