Best Valued Smartphones — 2018

2018 is coming to an end. We’ve seen various releases as Smartphone companies tried to outdo each other. In the end there’s so many to choose from. Value matters to me a lot. Thus I went in search for the best valued features, performance and quality you could get from your purchase. If you want premium features on a budget, we’d recommend these:

Samsung Galaxy S9

Samsung was one of the only smartphone company to keep it real this year. While everyone copied the iPhone’s notch, Samsung stuck with their beautiful Infinity display and just kept slimming the Top and bottom bezels. Still, the S9 is the best looking phone. Again, they kept the headphone jack.

Asthetically, it’s the best of this bunch. This is a phone that has amazing hardware, fast wired/wireless charging, a bad-ass camera, and the best screen and speakers in the android market. The S9 wasn’t a big improvement over the S8. For this reason I’d even published an article on how Smartphones these year weren’t worth an upgrade and used this phone as an example. Read here. The price wasn’t worth it then at $750. It is now! You can now get the S9 for as low as $500 (185,000NGN) for Certified Refurbished models. A new one costs about $50 more. Buy on Amazon or Jumia.

OnePlus 6T

You know what they say about OnePlus; The Flagship Killer. Read the full Review. And that Title is still theirs to keep this year. The 6T is a high-end device with moderate pricing for the specs. Also, it adopts a Teardrop camera-cut-out style rather than copy the notch.

The OnePlus 6T is a really beautiful, minimalist looking phone with the In-screen fingerprint sensor and Teardrop-style notch. The Oxygen OS it runs is the closest to Stock Android. The 6T lacks nothing in Processing Power, RAM or storage. Sporting an AMOLED screen and good enough speakers. You ain’t missing out on what phones double it’s $550 price offers. Get this phone if you want a Premium smartphone on a budget. Buy here.

Xiaomi Pocofone F1

OnePlus showed the world that you didn’t need to charge $1000 for premium smartphones. Xiaomi must have been inspired. Forget the weird sounding name. This is the phone everyone was talking about a few months back. The Pocofone F1 packs all the flagship features they could lay their hands on into this underpriced beast. Packing the latest Snapdragon 845 and an 8GB+256GB RAM/Storage. It doesn’t end there. Liquidcool Technology, AI cameras, and a 4000mAh battery. Especially as it only costs only $300 (92,000NGN). Buy on Jumia or Amazon

iPhone XR

Their 2018 lineup arguably lacked the usual innovation-filled touch of Apple. While the XS didn’t make this list, it’s the XR that I’d solidly recommend if you must own an iPhone. While the price tag is a quite steep, $750 (275,000NGN) is the same price the iPhone 8 launched at. So it’s still within the reach of anyone that was looking towards a 7+ and above. And there’s talk on price cuts.

Sure LCD screens shouldn’t be a thing in 2018! But don’t forget Apple makes really good LCD screens. Thus you’d hardly notice it’s display is anything short of brilliant in your day-to-day use. Besides that, you still have the best mobile processor ever, one of the best cameras, and an overall amazing experience. And all those colors on an iPhone…The XR is the best valued option for upgrading or getting into the current generation Apple ecosystem. Otherwise I honestly wouldn’t recommend it as a budget option. Get one at Jumia or Amazon.

Huawei Honor Play

Something that really bothers me is that only the flagship phones seem to include the latest and most capable processors. For instance the $1000 ASUS gaming phone. If, like me, you enjoy mobile gaming then you’ll know that sucks. The Honor Play comes with a very capable Hisilicon Kirin 970 AI processor with 4GB/64GB in a $300 (92,000NGN) phone! No high-res screens or premium features that spike the price.

This smartphone was literally built for gaming. With special features like GPU Turbo boost, 3D sound and 4d Smart Shock. They didn’t cut back on the next best things–the camera, battery and screen– neither. Boasting a 16MP dual AI camera with Advanced scene detection. And a 6.3 inch full view display. And 3750mAh of battery! The Honor Play is a personal favorite; checking all the boxes for features I look out for. Get it on Amazon.