- There are some truly great Android smartphones out there.
But the thing about great smartphones is that they often
command great prices.
And the fact of the matter is that today,
you don't need to spend that much
to get a solid smartphone.
I'm Michael Fisher, and this is a $400 Android Showdown.
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To be clear, this isn't a proper comparison,
spec sheets and camera shootouts,
because that'd take 20 minutes.
And, frankly, it'd be overkill.
One of the great things about Android phones in this class
is that they offer quality that until recently
was only available on flagships.
I've been using this combination of devices for weeks now,
and I don't much notice the processor differences
or the slight bumps in RAM or other specs.
On the design side, all of these feel
at least nice in the hand,
and you've got a pretty wide aesthetic choice.
If you like beefy metal, you go with the Axon 7.
Glass on glass, Honor 8.
Boardroom glitz, Idol 4S.
Conservative metallic, OnePlus 3.
And oddball modular gadget, Moto Z Play.
Now I've already reviewed both the OnePlus and the Moto,
so for this video, I'm focusing
on the phones that are newer to me,
the ones from Honor, ZTE and Alcatel.
Again, all of these pretty much cover the basics.
You're getting a full HD or quad HD display.
There's expandable storage on everything but the OnePlus.
They're all efficient enough with power to get you
through the day on a charge,
and they've all got fingerprint scanners.
And headphone jacks.
Where the differences shine through is in the details.
Of these three, it's probably the Idol 4S
that's managed to cram in the most gimmicks.
And I don't necessarily mean that as a dig.
First of all, the phone ships with a VR headset
at no additional cost.
Along with a beautiful quad HD display
and a pair of JBL ear buds
to make that headset worthwhile.
Bravo.
Also, I love being able to pull the Idol from a pocket
and know that whether it's right side up
or upside down, the software is gonna
line itself up automatically.
That symmetry isn't confined to the X axis.
The pass-through speaker ports also make it
reversible front to back.
And they're good speakers too.
Also, the boom key is an awful lot of fun
once you remember it's there.
Do it in a call and you'll get extra volume.
Do it when a song is playing for extra oomph.
Do it in the gallery for a series of instant collages.
The boom key is what happens when a manufacturer
ties in creative software with a dedicated hardware feature.
And I love it.
The sad thing is it's in the wrong place.
If you're right-handed, the boom key is where
the unlock button should be, and vice versa.
Yes, the phone still wakes up when you press it,
but it doesn't lock with the boom key.
Whereas the fingerprint sensor sits damn near flush
with the casing, which means you get
no tactile guidance on where to put your finger.
Just think of how many times a day you unlock your phone,
and imagine hunting around for an invisible sensor
every time you do it.
This one little annoyance right in the wrong place
makes using the Idol 4S very frustrating.
And it's lightweight, kind of unremarkable in-hand feel
doesn't really help either.
Software, not hardware,
is the low point for ZTE's Axon 7.
There are tons of features here, like voice unlock
and a half-hearted implmentation of Moto's
chop to flashlight feature,
but overall it's the least polished software of the bunch.
Software updates since launch have tidied up
some of the translation errors and typos and weird behavior,
but so much of this just screams 2012-era Samsung.
Throwing on half-baked features
just for the sake of doing it.
I also found the display a little disappointing.
It's quad HD, which is great,
but I found its saturation pretty low,
especially for an AMOLED panel.
But if you care about sound quality,
the Axon 7 is your jam.
Each of the twin grills flanking the display
hides a solid driver, and the sound hitting your face
when you're watching a movie or streaming Spotify
is just great.
(exercise music)
(laughter)
Dolby Atmos and digital surround
lend a little bonus to the ear bud experience, too.
And this hardware, man, what a tank.
If heavy metal is your thing, you want a huge battery
or you're just dying to relive the glory days of HTC,
the Axon 7 is your phone.
Just make sure you're prepared to paint over
the interface with a custom launcher.
That's also what many reviewers
recommend you do with the Honor 8.
The EMUI interface, let's say,
pays a lot of homage to IOS.
But it's actually grown on me over the years.
I appreciate things like the battery monitor,
which snitches on apps that are wasting power
in the background.
Despite how goofy it looks, knocking on the display
to take a screenshot is actually less awkward
than fiddling with the side keys.
The option to program shortcuts into the power button
is very convenient.
Mine is set to launch the camera with the double click
and light the torch with the long press.
And unlike on the Idol, this button,
which is also the fingerprint scanner,
is easy to find by feel.
And even if you don't like the look of the interface,
you've gotta admit it's visually cohesive.
The frosted glass layering effects play nicely
with the phone's hardware, whose fit and finish
suggest a much more expensive piece of kit.
The Honor 8 isn't immune to shortfalls, naturally.
There are occasional software slowdowns,
the screen is a little dim,
and it's quote unquote only full HD.
And even some basic features, like auto brightness,
don't always work as they should.
But when you combine the positives with niceties
like the rare IR transmitter and the dual camera setup,
you get a really compelling little package.
Speaking of cameras, all these are serviceable,
but none is gonna win you the Snapchatter of the Year award.
For me, it was the Honor 8, with its color
and monochrome sensors working together
with a feature-packed interface, that took the camera cake.
Your priorities may be different.
(upbeat music)
I don't usually crown one phone a winner over others,
but using these three devices over several weeks,
I have to admit I gravitated most often to the Honor 8.
It doesn't have the stunning screen of the Idol
or the sound quality of the Axon,
but to me it's the phone that seems
the most well thought out, the most unified,
and it doesn't hurt that it's beautiful.
But hold on a second.
We're omitting the phones I've already covered, remember.
And if we fold those back in, it becomes really tough
for me to choose between the specced-out OnePlus 3
and the endless customizability of the Moto Z Play.
The former packs a lotta power on the hardware side
and makes all the right changes to Android.
The latter takes a step back on specs,
but it's battery and processor combo
make for insane endurance.
And I love the ability to give it
new features at will with Moto Mods.
But that's cheating, isn't it.
The Moto Mods cost more, and the Moto Z Play
is already 50 bucks over the $400 threshold.
So unless you really need expandable storage,
I've gotta give my overall choice
in this showdown to the OnePlus 3.
Once again, all these will cover the basics
for the average person, and there's plenty on each one
to make even a smartphone nerd happy.
But if I were to recommend an Android in the $400 segment
to the mythical average consumer,
then, yeah, the OnePlus 3 is still the phone to beat.
See Mr. Mobile's OnePlus 3 review
and the one for the Moto Z Play
on Mr. Mobile's YouTube channel,
which I welcome you to subscribe to,
so you're the first to know when a new video goes live.
Until next time, thanks for watching,
and stay mobile, my friends.