Deals: a look at the Android mid-rangers, starring the CMF Phone 1, Moto G84, Honor 90 and others

2024-07-21

The CMF Phone 1 is super popular at the moment, but it’s not the only phone in this price range and it may not be the best pick for you. First things first, let’s have a look at the phone itself.

It sells for £180 at the moment for an 8/128GB unit (there is a microSD slot, so adding more storage is not an issue). It has a 6.67” FHD+ 120Hz OLED display, a Dimensity 7300 chipset and a 50MP camera. The back is replaceable, but the 5,000mAh battery is not (it does 33W wired-only charging). Nothing promises 2 major OS updates and 3 years of security patches.

The Moto G84 is the same price, but with a 10-bit 6.5” OLED display (FHD+ 120Hz). The Snapdragon 695 is older and slower by a large margin. On the plus side, the 50MP main camera has OIS (and the CMF camera does not) and there is an 8MP ultra wide. Downside, the 695 can’t record 4K video.

Upside, besides the microSD slot, there is also a 3.5mm headphone jack. The 5,000mAh battery with 30W charging is a wash. Motorola is bad with software updates and the G84 is likely to end its journey on Android 14.

By the way, the Moto G54 is a bit cheaper and is similar to the G84, except it uses a 6.5” IPS LCD (FHD+ 120Hz) and a Dimensity 7020. This chip is slightly faster than the SD 695 in the G84, but still no match for the CMF. This phone loses the ultra wide camera, but keeps OIS on the main module. Also, the 5,000mAh battery drops to 15W charging.

The Honor 90 Lite also has an IPS LCD, a larger 6.7” 90Hz panel (FHD+). It’s powered by the weaker Dimensity 6020 chipset, but boasts a 100MP main camera, which can handle in-sensor zoom. There’s also an ultra wide lens, but it’s only a 5MP camera. The battery is smaller at 4,500mAh and charges at 35W.

The Honor 90 is relatively pricey at £300, but it fixes many of the issues of the Lite. It uses a Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 Accelerated Edition chip and switches to a 6.7” 120Hz OLED display with a higher 1,200 x 2,664px resolution. The main camera is bumped up to a 200MP 1/1.4” sensor and the ultra wide to 12MP. The selfie camera is notable too with a 50MP sensor. Also, the 5,000mAh battery does 66W fast charging.

For £50 less, there is the Honor Magic6 Lite. It has a 6.78” 120Hz OLED display with a comparable resolution, but drops down to a Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chipset, a 108MP main and 5MP ultra wide cameras. The battery has 5,300mAh capacity and it charges at 35W.

There’s still no small phone from Asus this year, so the Asus Zenfone 10 is the one to look at. It holds up quite well with its Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset and all sorts of software tweaks. However, one of the two promised OS updates is already behind us. The 4,300mAh battery is larger than the S24 battery and it supports both 30W wired and 15W wireless. There’s no tele lens and the 50MP main camera (OIS) and 13MP ultra wide camera didn’t impress.

Finally, a really cheap option – the Redmi A3. This one is only £70, but it runs full Android 14. How well it does it with only 3GB of RAM is another question. Still, these days you need a smartphone to get around town (be it with a bus or cab), to pay for things, to stay in touch with others and so on. This is more of an alternative to those KaiOS Nokias than proper Android phones (and it is a lot more capable than a KaiOS phone).

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