Comments Locked

28 Comments

Back to Article

  • Teckk - Monday, May 20, 2019 - link

    Hi Ian, Any thoughts on why high-end phones lack bigger battery even though they seem to be almost similar in dimension/thickness, is there any physical limitation? Also, the same for lack of SD/expansion slot on many high end phones which actually ship with 64/128 GB.
  • peevee - Monday, May 20, 2019 - link

    High-end phones include high-end chips which are apparently high-end priced. No money for little niceties like a bigger battery. :)

    SD? How would they upsell you to higher flash size at $100 per 64GB (at about 10 times the cost of actual flash)?
  • flyingpants265 - Monday, May 20, 2019 - link

    Don't ask the experts about this. There is no real reason.
  • shing3232 - Monday, May 20, 2019 - link

    expansion is for the extra stuff lol. For lack of bigger battery, High end phone use battery that support very fast charge.
  • mobutu - Tuesday, May 21, 2019 - link

    say hello to Asus Zenfone 6 ZS630KL with almost everything @Li-Po 5000 mAh battery
    https://www.gsmarena.com/asus_zenfone_6_zs630kl-96...
  • Teckk - Tuesday, May 21, 2019 - link

    Wow, was not aware of this phone! Looks good, maybe we'll see a review here sometime.
  • GC2:CS - Tuesday, May 21, 2019 - link

    If you take iPhone as an example you have masive steel frame, display backed by a steel plate, 0,8 mm glass on each side, wireless charging coil, giant speakers, taptic engine, camera housing and face ID. And the battery has a generous expansion spacing as well.

    Lot’s of things a midrange can trade for battery capacity.

    On the other hand you got double layer motherboard and unique battery shapes which should represent an adventage for high end phones, but they are only implemented (ironically) by Apple
  • Teckk - Tuesday, May 21, 2019 - link

    Yeah can't compare this phone with iPhone but the $ difference from 64GB to the next model is ridiculous.
  • alchemist83 - Wednesday, May 29, 2019 - link

    N.b - 1. never take an iPhone, and 2. certainly don't use it for comparison when detailing phone construction / cost / price ratio etc. Simply doesn't apply to the largest company in the world (they don't have money concerns, just how much that can take the P) All I hear from from you is w*nk w*nk over iPhone whilst trying to sell erm apparently. Next time maybe use an Android phone from India for suitable realistic comparison.
  • ianmills - Tuesday, May 21, 2019 - link

    Phone companies want u to buy a new phone every 2 years. Having a small non-replaceable battery is the best way to get consumers to buy phones more often. Its the same reason for storage as well. High end phones are optimized for profit first and foremost.

    If you want those features you have to pay less money or pay an obscene more amount of money to make up for the lost profit (eg. samsung note series)
  • wr3zzz - Monday, May 20, 2019 - link

    1. What's wrong with the bundled plastic case? It doesn't look any different than all the free bundled cases. Or that the device does not warrant any case because it's cheap, unlike flagship phones which are usually gorgeous but needs a case to cover it because the price is now over $1000? Seriously, I am curious about the logic.

    2. I am in agreement with Oppo that price sensitive consumers prefer micro-USB. The person most likely does not have any type-c device at this moment but certainly has other micro-USB devices. The same person would prefer not to spend another $5-10 cable for charging at work. For this demo type-c really doesn't add anything right now. Type-c is a game changer for laptops but not much for phones.
  • leo_sk - Monday, May 20, 2019 - link

    redmi note 7 pro launched in india with sub 200 price with micro usb c. and its selling like hot cakes. The change has begun. Realme is just too slow this time
  • thesavvymage - Monday, May 20, 2019 - link

    no such thing as micro usb c. There is only one size of usb c
  • flyingpants265 - Monday, May 20, 2019 - link

    I'm not getting the point here... I paid $2.99 CAD for my USB-C cable, same price as my microUSB cables.. they're from the dollar store and they're the best cables I've ever used.. the USB-C one even has a reversible connector on the large USB side.
  • Fritzkier - Monday, May 20, 2019 - link

    Redmi Note 7 also have USB C and its on sale too on UK.
  • RSAUser - Tuesday, May 21, 2019 - link

    You mean micro b I assume? USB C is just better due to reversible.
    USB C cable price difference is negligible, if you're able to have a job you can afford an extra $2-3 cable, plus this phone should last you so you can charge at home.
    B, including micro B, has also been deprecated, going forward you'll start to only have USB C ports, I give it 3 years tops before mobo will start stopping to include A and B entirely.
    USB 2 still had legitimate use, like not taking all PCI E bandwidth if peripheral connected, so always some PCI E lanes open, there are no real advantages of keeping USB type A and B.
  • isthisavailable - Monday, May 20, 2019 - link

    Sorry, the microusb argument does not work anymore. Even in markets like India, no one wants a micro usb port- especially the tech savvy youth that realme seems to be targeting. An otherwise great devices let down by that microusb port.
  • LtGoonRush - Monday, May 20, 2019 - link

    If only it had US band support :(
  • patel21 - Monday, May 20, 2019 - link

    Exactly, I would love to see these budget phones with broader lte bands support. Its not like they can't do it at this price point too, as UMIDIGI does it quite well at the same price point.
    This could actually give them a lot more sales as people would import them to countries, where they are not officially available.
  • ianmills - Tuesday, May 21, 2019 - link

    redmi note 7 global version is similiar and has wide lte support
  • Mr. Engels - Monday, May 20, 2019 - link

    ...That plastic case made me realise:
    Young people is beggin' for a phone. Parents need a product like this, and this "low end" niche has a big future.
    In fact, some years ago, at the beginning of mobile phones, spending 1000$ in a terminal would seem crazy (and we made those Nokia to have a longer time use!).
    In an industrial & technical view, materials and machinery to make "2nd class" devices will be abundant and cheaper every year coming.
    Lets get sober-headed again.
  • flyingpants265 - Monday, May 20, 2019 - link

    I agree, but first of all, we've come full-circle: flagships go up to $1000, now mid-range phones are $600, offering the same performance as... previous flagships that were also $600. OK...

    Secondly, imagine if this phone had a full front screen, with a manual camera slider (not motorized?) That teardrop shape thing should disappear FOREVER, sliders/popouts are the official solution. Not a second screen, not a cutout.
  • flyingpants265 - Tuesday, May 21, 2019 - link

    Wow, found it.. It's called realme X, has popup camera and it's a similar price, $200-ish.. it's in india/china, not sure about western release.
  • Valantar - Monday, May 20, 2019 - link

    They're pretty smart with that micro-USB - scaring off all of us Type-C snobs. This looks like a fantastic phone, but there's no way I'd go back to micro-USB. No way. Good riddance.
  • wr3zzz - Monday, May 20, 2019 - link

    Oppo/Vivo is probably the savviest demo hitting phone company in the world. Realme is for people who are very sensitive about value proposition but don't care or understand about benchmarks. For the techie types who hang around Anandtech, Oppo/Vivo already has Oneplus. Techies who care about technical specs but shy on money are already cornered by Xiaomi.
  • 1_rick - Tuesday, May 21, 2019 - link

    Presumably the plastic case hides that nice S-curve shimmer on the back.
  • amosbatto - Friday, May 24, 2019 - link

    The idea of making the case to a phone out of glass is ridiculous, which is a slippery and highly breakable material. The purpose of a case is to PROTECT the phone. However, reviewers like Ian Cutress start out their reviews by harping endlessly how a phone doesn't feel "premium" if it isn't made out of glass, and then to add insult to injury, Cutress tells us to NOT use a clear plastic case which is totally necessary to protect the phone in a fall.

    Reviewers like Ian Cutress are the reason why the phone makers feel forced to make their cases out of glass, because they know that he will give them a bad review if they make it out of a practical material like plastic which is designed to absorb the force of a fall rather than cracking, yet also allows wireless charging, and is cheap and easy to replace if damaged.

    I get the impression that reviewers like Ian Cutress never use a phone more than a couple weeks, so they don't care whether a phone is designed to last. They don't care whether the phone will be cracked in a fall. They don't care whether a glass case will break when you need to pry open the phone to replace the battery.
  • Dewacara - Sunday, June 7, 2020 - link

    Azus Zenfone 6 also has a 5,000 mAh battery capacity with support for other advanced features.
    You can see the following explanation
    https://www.dewacara.com/2020/06/harga-dan-spesifi...

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now