For decades now, there has been an epic battle of supremacy between iPhone and Android and while in the early 2000’s, Apple may once have been the Rocky Balboa of the smartphone world, Android has been hitting the gym, pumping iron and drinking protein shakes to become Apollo Creed and is poised and may have in fact beaten them at their own game. Admittedly, we do feature a lot of iPhone centered content here at One Cut, but we thought it was time to showcase some phones that may in fact be the better buy!
Razer Phone 2
The second generation of the Razer gaming phone truly set the tone back in 2018 of where the industry is slowly heading and only now are the major players starting to catch up. With its unapologetic monolithic design powered by the very powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, a massive 8gb of ram and a 4000 MAh battery with quick charge, this was built for pleasure and inflicting some pain!
This HDR and Dolby Digital Plus 5. 1 certified phone features a super fluid and bright Ultra motion QHD display with a silky smooth 120Hrtz refresh rate which is still unmatched in the industry. The higher refresh rate means that intensive mobile games play without stutter or lag and navigating the interface is super smooth and very clean. No surprises, watching video content too is also a dream with this phone, especially considering that the Razer Phone 2 features two massive front firing speakers that flank the display and can get uncomfortably loud if need be, they truly are quite special and sound great.
Lastly, you also get an impressive dual optically stabilized camera setup that can produce some quite nice shots at times with the quality only getting better thanks to ongoing firmware updates. Speaking of updates, the phone runs the latest version of the Android OS and is as close to a stock interface you might get from a non-Pixel phone. It simply flies through everything from games to image editing and multitasking without breaking a sweat, nor will it with its Vapor chamber cooling system built in. However, our favorite feature is a design element Razer is known for, on the back of the phone users can customize the Razer logo to illuminate with your favorite color hue and different effects that makes this quite the eye catcher.
Moto Z4
For a while now Motorola has been making affordable smartphones with all the modern features one may want without the hefty price tag. Their latest offering the Z4 is a testament to this philosophy by getting things just right!
The first thing that strikes you is its edge-to-edge 6.4″ Max Vision OLED display that just seems to immerse the user, this is paired with a generous 3600Mah battery and an efficient Snapdragon 675 processor that is quite the workhorse. The phone is powered again by a very clean take on the latest Android OS and the ability to customize your experience with what they call mods, where users can change the functionality of things like the camera or speakers with ease.
The real highlight for us was the inclusion of an in-display fingerprint reader that seems to work mostly well and is usually reserved for higher end smartphone offerings plus a remarkable optically stabilized 48-megapixel primary camera that features Quad Pixel technology which combines four pixels into one large 1.6µm pixel for vastly improved low light performance. With their new night vision mode, results in our testing were seriously good and we know Motorola and quality cameras are not something you usually hear in the same sentence, but trust us, the camera is great at this price point.
You also get a variety of other neat camera tricks like hyperlapse slow motion and AR stickers which are a lot of fun and if that hasn’t sold you, what about a very capable 25-megapixel front camera for some very crisp selfies? The cameras alone are worth it on this one.
Xiaomi Mi Mix 3
The Mi Mix 3, put simply, is the near perfect smartphone in terms of design in our books. Its stunning virtual 6.39″ Full Screen Display means there is no notch and has a 93.4% screen-to-body ratio is unrivaled on any other smartphone. If you watch a lot of content on your phone, this screen truly will wow you! The body of the phone is also quite unique with its ceramic design element and magnetic slider mechanism that reveals a 24-megapixel selfie camera.
Powering this beautiful device is the Snapdragon 845 flagship processor and 6gb of ram on top of Xiaomi’s own Mi UI which is a modified version of Android. While it does work well, for those not used to a skinned version of the OS, there may be a slight usability adjustment. Power wise there is a modest 3200Mah battery that will last you the day but to offset the hit on battery, the company includes a fast wireless charger in the box!!! Take note Apple.
Lastly, we must mention that camera or rather pair of cameras. Xiaomi has made some serious strides in the camera department and has managed to crush out a mind blowing DXO score of 108 for their cameras, putting that in iPhone category in terms of quality. A powerful 24-megapixel camera paired with a 2-megapixel depth of field camera combined with large 1.4μm pixels and Dual Pixel Autofocus means this camera can produce some simply stunning photographs and even can mimic Apple’s own live Bokeh effect. The icing on the cake being the ability to record slow motion in 960 FPS for some very artistic looking videos that are perfect for Instagram.
To conclude, while these may just be a snapshot of some of the offerings in the Android space, they are some of our favorites. They offer a near perfect price to functionality ratio and as we have said many times before, you do not need to pay $1400 for a smartphone anymore – especially from the likes of Apple or Samsung. There are some great phones that offer the same if not more for way less money, so what will you spend your extra cash on?
One Cut Reviews 