You will be amazed at how good phones you can get for so much money!

Introductory

I’ve loved looking around in the $ 200 category so far, but if you can, it’s even better now because we get great phones for that money. It seems that summer is over, the offer is expanding, so now, during the September selection, I no longer had to search for good phones, it was more a question of which one I had to miss from the list with a sore heart. You can now see the result of the sorting.

It was only at the end of the selection that I noticed that four of the five phones cost the same, making it even easier to decide which phone to buy. The fifth device became a bit of a cuckoo’s egg, and you’ll see why. Let's tap between the strings!

1. Huawei Honor 9 Lite

Huawei is one of the fastest growing manufacturers not only at home but all over the world. This is no wonder, as we can now safely say that it can provide world-class quality in the cameras built into the phone, and according to the latest news, it is even conceivable that they will be the first to launch a mobile phone with a folding display. So there’s a reason to love their phones, even if they got a Lite token, because as you can read below, this phone isn’t so much Lite!

The mobile's central unit is a Kirin 659 with eight cores running at 2,36 GHz, 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of ROM. We also find plenty of cameras, 13 + 2 megapixel units work on the front and back. The display is small compared to today’s high-end devices, at just 5,65 inches, but its resolution is good as the 18: 9 aspect ratio display has a resolution of 2160 x 1080 pixels.

The phone also got a fingerprint sensor, compass and gravity sensor, navigation is also solved thanks to GPS, GLONASS and Beidou support. Of course there is also wifi and Bluetooth, and the built-in battery has a capacity of 3000 mAh.

More details and purchase: Huawei Honor 9 Lite ($ 210, ~ $ 58)

2. Xiaomi Redmi Note 5

This phone has been released a few months ago and since then it has a stable place among the best, and even looking at the statistics of the last month, more and more customers catch their eye and put it in their cart. Xiaomi’s mid-range killer is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 636, equipped with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage (also available in 4GB / 64GB packages). The hardware drives a large 5,99-inch LCD IPS display with 1080 x 2160px resolution (FHD +).

The Redmi 5 Note got a 12-megapixel rear camera complete with a 5-megapixel auxiliary camera to be able to take photos with shallow depth of field. On the front panel we can take photos with a 13 megapixel self-contained camera. The smartphone comes packed with a large 4000 mAh battery, runs MIUI based on Android 8.0 Oreo, and supports a wide range of 4G networks in its global version.

More details and purchase: Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 ($ 210, ~ $ 58)

Xiaomi Mi A2

Last month’s selection included only the A2 Lite with reduced capabilities, but to our great delight, the price of the full-featured version has already been consolidated this month, so we can replace the Lite with one of our favorites, the Xiaomi Mi A2.

The phone has become really strong in terms of central unit, but the point isn’t even that, but as with its predecessor, it’s MIUI-free, clean Android and cameras. The central unit, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 MSM8976 Plus, employs eight cores in the processor, however, these are not ARM but Kyro cores. The Snapdragon 660 should be known to Qualcomm for mid-range phones, but it’s also worth noting that thanks to the improvements, it is approaching last year’s top solution, the Snapdragon 835, 10-15 percent behind it!

Surely surprising, but while the Lite version included a notched display with a notch, the Xiaomi pushed a 2160 x 1080 pixel IPS panel with a completely average FHD + resolution into this phone. This is suspected to be the same as the solution used in the Xiaomi MIX 2 and MIX 2S, at least the physical dimensions of the diagonal, the panel all point to this.

The three cameras on the phone have become really powerful. The more substantial back panel unit is a double 12 + 20 megapixel pair. Of this, the 12-megapixel uses a Sony IMX486 Exmor RS chip, and above it is an f / 1.75 aperture lens. The lower resolution unit works with a standard zoom range lens, the 20 megapixel is a telephoto solution that enables the phone for real-time hardware depth blur and, of course, hardware, i.e. optical zoom. To make sure that wasn’t good enough, Xiaomi didn’t save with the front camera either. Here I used the same Sony IMX376 Exmor RS sensor on the back of the telephoto camera, but here, of course, comes with a normal lens. Due to the different lens, the aperture value here is slightly worse, f / 2.0.

More details and purchase: Xiaomi Mi A2 4/32 GB ($ 210, ~ $ 58)

Vernee X1

There is a little less talk about Vernee phones these days, even though they come with interesting handsets as well. The last really big throw was perhaps the Vernee MIX 2, introduced about a year ago, which became a really nice phone, although there were complaints about it as well. At the same time, the device we visited was flawless, we were very satisfied with it.

This year, Vernee broke with the old names, its new phones arrived with M, X, V markings. The former indicates weaker, the middle indicates stronger phones, while V is used for strapa phones.

The Vernee X1 is the perfect mobile based on its paper shape. The central unit is the MTK Helio P23, which is one of the company’s most successful lower-middle-end chips. Modern, consumes little, the GPU has become quite strong in it, and of course we can't complain about the eight processor cores either. Operation on this phone is aided by 6GB of RAM and 64GB of built-in storage, both of which are pleasing in this price range.

The phone has four cameras, a 13 + 5 megapixel pair on the front and a 16 + 5 megapixel pair on the back. There is no problem with other capabilities either, wifi already supports the ac standard, and satellite systems also manage GPS and Glonass signals. The display of the phone is 6 inches and has a resolution of FHD +, i.e. 2160 x 1080 pixels.

The outside speaks for itself by clicking on the link below you will find more pictures.

More details and purchase: Vernee X1 6/64 GB ($ 210, ~ $ 58)

Blackview BV6000 IP68

We didn't like Balckview's phones. No, that's not a good term, let's just say we didn't care. The one thing is that they were cheap, but they were also so backward in terms of abilities that we didn’t dare put them in any of the referrals. Then something changed, the company found a new direction, they started dealing with non-mainstream phones, such as the BV6000.

The Blackview BV6000 is a bloody phone with smart features like an air pressure gauge or a compass. It also has IP68 water and dust resistance as well as impact resistance.

The phone, as we are accustomed to in this category, received a smaller-than-average display with a screen size of just 4,7 inches. This was because due to the thick covers, despite the small display, the housing could remain the normal size.

The central unit has become quite strong, at least in this category it is definitely among the stronger. The MTK6755 chip has 8 cores and a 2 GHz clock. There is 3 GB of memory and 32 GB of mass storage. So the Blackview BV6000 has become the perfect, rugged hiking phone, whether it’s a forest trip or wilder things like a rafting hike or a rock climb.

More information and purchase: Blackview BV6000 3/32 GB ($ 214 ~ $ 59)

Closing Remarks

For some time, we’ve been trying to pick phones that support the B20 800 MHz LTE band used at home so that fast mobilnet isn’t an obstacle either. Fortunately, more and more of these devices are on the market, but it is still important today to check the B20 for specifications before buying.

Remember to choose Priority Line delivery for any purchase, where the distributor will deal with customs and VAT instead.

Before you buy, we recommend that you read this article: So buy in major Chinese stores

… And look around this page to see if you can find a special price for your chosen phone: Chinese coupon finder