I know, I know. You have been busy at work and couldn’t find time to pick out gifts for your loved ones. Worry not – we are running a series of buying guides that will help you choose the right gift for your family and friends.
Read on to find out the best smartphones out there on the market that cost less than AED 1000!
Samsung Galaxy A5 – AED 1500
Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017) smartphone comes with a 5.20-inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 1080 pixels by 1920 pixels. The Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017) is powered by 1.9GHz octa-core Exynos 7880 processor and it comes with 3GB of RAM.
The phone packs 32GB of internal storage that can be expanded up to 256GB via a microSD card. As far as the cameras are concerned, the Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017) packs a 16-megapixel primary camera on the rear and a 16-megapixel front shooter for selfies.
The Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017) runs Android 6.0 and is powered by a 3000mAh non removable battery. It measures 146.10 x 71.40 x 7.90 (height x width x thickness) and weighs 157.00 grams.
The new Mi A1 smartphone is a product of partnership between Xiaomi and Google. Hence, the Mi A1 runs on stock Android. Out of the box, the Xiaomi Mi A1 ships with stock Android 7.1.2 Nougat. The company has also promised that the Mi A1 will be one of the first devices to get the Android 8.0 Oreo update by the end of this year.
The smartphone also features a dual camera system at the back – both are 12-megapixel shooters – one with a RGB sensor and a wide-angle lens, and the other with a telephoto lens. On the front, you will find a 5-megapixel camera for all your selfie needs.
Under the hood, the Mi A1 runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 625 processor, comes with 4GB of RAM and offers 64GB of built-in storage. This can be further expanded by using a micro SD card.
Micromax Canvas 2 (2017) – AED 499
The Canvas 2 comes with a 5-inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 720 pixels by 1280 pixels. The phone’s design is quite different from the earlier iteration. Micromax has also included a fingerprint sensor on the home button, which is quite fast at recognizing fingerprints.
The battery compartment of the Micromax Canvas 2 (2017) can be popped off to reveal two Micro-SIM slots and a separate microSD slot. On top of the screen, Micromax has also includes the Corning Gorilla Glass 5 for extra protection of the display.
Under the hood, the Micromax Canvas 2 (2017) is powered by 1.3GHz quad-core Mediatek MT6737 processor and it comes with 3GB of RAM. The phone packs 16GB of internal storage that can be expanded up to 64GB via a microSD card.
At the back, you get a 13-megapixel primary camera, while the front sports a 5-megapixel shooter for selfies. The phone also runs on Android 7.0 Nougat operating system.
The LG Q6 is part of the company’s new Q series, which is aimed at the mid-range smartphone market. The LG Q6 offers a FullVision display following the company’s flagship, the LG G6. With the Q series, LG wants to bring premium features at affordable price range. The phone measures 142.5-by-69.3-by-8.1mm and weighs just 149-gms.
On the front, you get a 5.5-inch 18:9 FHD+ FullVision Display, that offers a resolution of 2160-by-1080 pixels. The LG Q6’s 18:9 aspect ratio makes video browsing, gaming and multi-tasking more immersive.
On the top of the screen, you get a 5MP wide angle camera for all your selfie requirements. The phone comes with a hybrid slot that accepts one micro SD card and a nano SIM, and a separate slot for the second nano SIM.
Turn the phone around and you will find the 13MP camera at the back with no visible camera bump. Right next to it is the LED flash module. Under the hood, the Q6 is powered by a 1.4GHz octa-core Snapdragon 435 processor. It also comes with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage.
The overall design of the Nova 2 Plus is reminiscent of the Huawei P10, with the antenna bands blending into the body, minimal branding, and a dual-lens camera at the top. On the front, you get a 5.5-inch screen that offers a resolution of 1080-by-1920 pixels. A piece of 2.5D curved glass is fixed over the display.
The phone measures just 6.9mm in thickness and weighs around 169-gms. Under the hood, the phone runs on a Huawei-made Kirin 659 processor with 4GB of RAM. You also get 64GB of internal storage space, which can be expanded to up to 128GB using a micro SD card. The battery of the Nova 2 Plus is rated at 3340mAh.
The Huawei Nova 2 Plus is powered by Android 7.0 Nougat operating system along with Huawei’s very own EMUI 5.1 UI built on top of it. When you flip the phone around, you see Huawei’s trademark – the dual camera system.
On the Nova 2 Plus, one of the cameras is rated 12-megapixels, while the other is an 8-megapixel lens. Just next to the camera system is a an LED flash module and just below sits the fingerprint sensor. Up front, you also get a 20-megapixel camera for all your selfies.
The Nokia 3 offers a solid design and build quality, packs in a pure Android experience and comes in at a low asking price. It may not turn many heads, but the Nokia 3 does have a good spec sheet. The phone comes with a metal frame which makes it feel solid and well built.
On the front you’ve got a 5-inch 720p IPS LCD display that’s slightly curved. Viewing angles are good, and it gets surprisingly bright, but the lower resolution takes a bit of time to get used to. Having said that though, the visuals were quite good for an entry-level smartphone.
The Nokia 3 is powered by a quad-core MediaTek 6737 processor running at a clock speed of 1.3GHz. Under the hood, the phone also comes with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. You also get a microSD expansion slot to be able to increase the internal storage capacity.
The Moto G5 Plus is available in two colours – fine gold and lunar grey. To keep it moderately less bulky, the G5 Plus ditches the 5.5-inch display in favour of the more manageable 5.2-inch Full HD version.
At the rear, the Moto G5 Plus comes with a 12-megapixel camera and dual-LED flash. At 7.7mm thick, the Moto G5 Plus is not slim, but it certainly helps gripping the phone better.
Under the hood, the Moto G5 Plus runs on a 2GHz octa-core Snapdragon 625 SoC coupled with Adreno 506 GPU. At MWC 2017, three variants of the new smartphone were announced, with 2GB, 3GB, and 4GB of RAM and either 32GB or 64GB of inbuilt storage.
The rear 12-megapixel camera comes with a feature called Dual Autofocus Pixels which lets you lock focus in a blink. The Moto G5 Plus camera has an f/1.7 aperture and dual LED flash.
The F3 packs a dual front-facing selfie camera system. The camera system includes a 16MP camera for standard selfies and a 8MP wide-angle camera with a field-of-view that offers group selfies. At the back of the camera, you will also find a 13MP camera that features Dual PDAF and an f/2.2 aperture.
The phone is fairly slim at 7.3mm and light at 153 grams. The phone’s 5.5-inch display with slim borders on either side makes it easy to use this phone one-handed.
The phone itself comes with 4GB RAM and 64GB built-in storage. Inside the box, you get a 10W power adapter, a headset, a data cable, a flexible phone case, a SIM ejector tool, and the instruction manuals. The chassis of the phone is built using plastic except for the back plate, which is metal.
Under the hood, the Oppo F3 is powered by the MediaTek 64-bit MT6750T octa-core SoC, while the choice of operating system is Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The phone is powered by a 3200mAh non removable battery. Oppo’s F3 also accompanies the Beautify 4.0 pre-installed.
Coming in at an affordable AED 999, the UNIX PRO features a 5.5-inch full HD IPS display which is protected by a 2.5D curved glass. Clad in an all-metal body, the UNIX PRO features a brilliant design and build quality.
Under the 5.5-inch full HD screen, XTOUCH includes a physical fingerprint button that also functions as the home button. The UNIX PRO is a dual-SIM smartphone that runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS.
The UNIX PRO derives its processing power from a MediaTek Helio P20 octa-core processor running at a clock speed of 2.3GHz. The new chipset from MediaTek is designed to offer better performance, lower power consumption and faster LTE connectivity.
Other things that round off the specs include a whopping 6GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage space. The internal storage space is further expandable to up to 256GB through use of a micro SD card. In terms of imaging, the UNIX PRO packs in a 16-megapixel rear camera that features phase detection auto focus and an f/2.0 aperture.
The Phab 2 Pro is massive, and for good reason. The phone is well-built with a 6.4-inch IPS LCD screen and a massive 4,050mAh battery, both a prerequisite for Google’s Tango device.
You get an RGB camera, a time-of-flight camera, a motion-tracking camera, and an IR depth sensor, in addition to the usual array of motion sensors to make Tango possible. The body is carved out of a single block of aluminium, and the screen is covered by a sheet of Gorilla Glass that’s slightly curved around the edges.
Also onboard are 4GB of RAM, an Adreno 510 GPU, 64GB of storage, a micro-USB port and a tray that takes either two SIM cards or a SIM card and a microSD card up to 128GB. The battery lets you go for well over a day between charges and if you do not use power-intensive apps and the Tango AR modes, you can use it for up to 3 days.
