Their cameras are good too: the best 300-euro smartphones

Thursday, December 03, 2020

Their cameras are good too
The best 300 euro smartphones

By Klaus Wedekind

If you don't want to spend more than 300 euros on a smartphone, you don't have to do without many things that devices that are twice as expensive offer. The lower middle class now has decent cameras and sometimes even 5G on board. ntv.de presents its five favorites.

If you see the smartphone primarily as a tool, you don't necessarily need a brilliant display, high performance or the best camera. The thing should just work and not cause any problems. Users with this setting are in good hands in the 300 euro class. The devices have everything a smartphone should have – and even a little more. ntv.de presents five recommendable representatives of this price range.

All the devices presented have only been on the market for a few months. Older devices, which used to be more expensive, are hardly worthwhile because at best two major Android updates can be expected and the smartphones will no longer receive security updates three years after their market launch at the latest.

Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite

The Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite is available for just under 280 euros, but still received an overall grade of 2.1 from Stiftung Warentest. There are good reasons for that. Among other things, the Chinese smartphone offers a very nice, around 6.6-inch OLED display with an integrated fingerprint sensor. It is equipped with Qualcomm's powerful 5G mid-range chip Snapdragon 765G and is very durable with a 4160 milliampere-hours (mAh) battery.

There is also a more than satisfactory quadruple camera with a 48-megapixel main camera, ultra-wide-angle and macro lens and a depth sensor. The internal flash memory cannot be expanded, so the 128 gigabyte (GB) model is recommended. The 64 GB version is only around 20 euros cheaper.

Samsung Galaxy A51

The Samsung Galaxy A51 has a similarly strong configuration from around 220 euros. Its 6.5-inch OLED screen is a bit better than that of the Mi 10 Lite, but Samsung's in-house Exynos chip is not as fast as the Snapdragon 765G and does not have a 5G modem. With the Galaxy 51, too, the fingerprint sensor sits under the display and the quadruple camera snaps at a similar level.

The battery holds 4000 mAh and the memory of the smartphone is not only a whopping 128 GB, but can also be expanded. The same applies to the quadruple camera as to the Xiaomi Mi10 Lite: the main camera and ultra-wide-angle lens are good in daylight, when it gets darker, the image quality visibly drops.

Motorola Moto G 5G Plus

As the name suggests, the Motorola Moto G 5G Plus is also a 5G smartphone. Its 6.7-inch display has a higher refresh rate of 90 Hertz (Hz), which is exceptional in this price range. But instead of a crisp OLED panel, you only get a good LCD. The Moto G 5G Plus cost 350 euros in the summer. Now you can get it from 260 euros.

Like almost all inexpensive devices that use the new cellular standard, it is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 765G, which in the Moto G 5G Plus also proves to be an ideal combination of efficiency and performance. The device also has a battery with a huge 5000 mAh capacity, which makes the smartphone a real endurance runner. The fact that the fingerprint sensor is not under the display but in the switch on the side is a matter of taste. The quadruple camera corresponds in equipment and quality to those of the aforementioned competitors.

Oppo Find X2 Lite

For the Oppo Find X2 Lite almost 500 euros had to be paid in June, but now it is available for almost exactly 300 euros. The drop in price probably also has to do with the fact that it is equipped similarly to the other buy recommendations. There is hardly more in this price range. And that's a lot.

The Oppo Find X2 Lite has a 6.4-inch OLED display with an integrated fingerprint sensor, a Snapdragon 765G, 128 GB of storage and a battery with around 4000 mAh. The camera equipment is also similar to that of the competition, but offers two special features. In addition to the main and ultra-wide-angle camera, there are two snaps on board, each of which takes 2 megapixels in black and white or pictures with a retro color effect.

Realme 7 Pro

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Realme 7 Pro 8GB + 128GB, Mirror Blue

The Chinese manufacturer Realme has only been around for two and a half years, but nevertheless it is already offering smartphones with a very good price-performance ratio in Europe. The explanation is simple: it is part of the BBK Electronics group, from which Oppo and OnePlus emerged, among others.

The Realme 7 Pro is the youngest smartphone from the Chinese and only recently came onto the market. It costs almost exactly 300 euros. If you wait for Christmas, you can probably get it even cheaper. The smartphone has a 6.4-inch OLED panel with an integrated sensor. It is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 720G, which offers decent mid-range performance in a team with 8 GB of RAM, but not 5G. The Flash memory of the Realme 7 Pro is 128 GB and the device doesn't run out of breath with a 4200 mAh battery.

With a 64-megapixel main camera, it stands out from the competition. Ultra-wide-angle and macro cameras as well as the depth sensor are on the same level.

It depends on the detail

As you can see, the differences between the best 300-euro smartphones are not that great. When making a purchase decision, the most important factors are the price and personal preferences. For example, if you want to scroll smoothly through websites, the 60 Hertz display of the Motorola Moto G 5G Plus may be decisive. The Moto also has the largest battery. When it comes to the camera, the Realme 7 Pro has the edge, but the Oppo Find X2 Lite is a bit more playful in this area. In terms of price, the Samsung Galaxy A51 is very tempting, but the Xiaomi 10 Lite with its stronger chip may have a better price-performance ratio.