Weekend Rants: Why you shouldn’t buy cheap Android phones from popular brands

It’s another weekend, a time we pick up an erring part in mobile tech and thrash it out. This article was inspired by a comment from Mobilista, Surajudeen, and we explore reasons why you shouldn’t buy low-end smartphones from popular phone brands.

There’s a general misconception people have with mobile phone makers. OK, for instance, If I asked, “What are the best Android phone brands?” The reply I expect to hear would be answers like Samsung, LG, Sony, and HTC. This is true. These aforementioned brands make the best Android phones you can see in the market, but then, there’s a limit to their greatness.

These popular brands make phones people love, but the great experience ends with their high end (and a few mid-range) phones. When it comes to low-end devices, the likes of Samsung , LG, HTC and Sony are useless. Yes, you read it right. People buy them with the belief they’re getting something great, but trust me, the reverse is the case here.

If you want to buy a cheap Android device, look away from these popular brands because their low-end devices are under specced and overpriced. An experience with them may leave a bad taste in your mouth. If you must buy any of these popular brands, then save up and buy the very expensive models. That’s when you know you’ve bought something worth celebrating.

There are many instances: Let’s pick out the Samsung J1. This is a phone released in 2015 but it comes with measly 512 MB RAM, and the price (at the time of writing this) is N20,330. It’s funny when you know you can get a 2 GB RAM Infinix Hot 2 for less or same price. Another case is the Galaxy Star 2 Plus, which Samsung used as a Hero deal during the Jumia Mobile Megathon. The phone has no 3G, carries just 512 MB RAM, 4 GB internal memory and was priced at N17,000.

Outside Samsung, there’s a mid-range Sony device, Xperia M4 Aqua. You can imagine, the 8 GB version of this phone has just 1.26 GB usable memory. Even rooting and hacking cannot save the situation. Imagine shelling N40,000 and being faced with this problem. LG, and HTC are also culprits, when you look at their low-end devices, you see that they’re expensive compared to the offerings of Chinese brands.

If your budget for a new smartphone is in the region of N30,000, then stay away from big name brands. Rather look towards the likes of TECNO, Gionee, Innjoo etc. They offer way better value for money compared to those popular brands you know.

Oya, rant your own 🙂 Happy Weekend folks!!

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Author: Mister Mobility

Mister Mobility, a techie with a passion for storytelling. I have owned, used, and reviewed hundreds of mobile phones since 2001. I started Mobility Nigeria Tech Blog in 2008.