Australian T3 - May 2018

Discover more at techradar.com/au WINTER 2018T3 85

Sub-$600 phones

udget phones have

changed.Forsolong

going budget meant

aterriblescreen,

a catastrophic CPU or something

else that made using your phone

adeeplyunpleasantexperience.

But there’s a new baseline.

APPLE iPHONE SE

$549, apple.com/au

Although a successor is almost certainly

on the way, Apple’s original SE, which

dates back to 2016, is the only budget

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an iPhone 6S into the compact case of an

iPhone 5S, it’s an old-school look and a tiny

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can still get one this size. Some tech, like

cameras, are a little behind the others here,

but strong nevertheless. iOS is slick, and

the battery has some serious staying power.

Note, though, that opting for the cheapest

16GB model would be madness.

SMALL, CHEAP iOS FOR ALL

SONY XA1

$399, sony.com.au

Sony’s handsome XA1 looks and feels

slick, with metal used in the right places.

Inside, you get an ample 32GB of storage,

and there’s also a microSD card slot (next

to the nanoSIM) in the pull-out tray.

Colour reproduction on the 720p screen is

respectably rich and vivid, and the display is

also super-bright with superb contrast. The

XA1’s rear camera is among the very best at

this price, using a 23MP sensor of 1/2.3-

inch size, the same scale as some dedicated

compact cameras, and produces images

with great detail.

PACKING A BIG SENSOR

While the high end spirals

upwards in price, offering

curved glass, ubiquitous notches

andmorestoragespacethanis

absolutely necessary, lower-end

handsetsnowgetthetech

that really matters: decent

processors, high-end screens,

and affordable camera sensors

that produce stunning results.

And when a handset costs $600 or

less,that’smorethanreasonable

enough to justify the purchase

outsideofacontract.hey’re

perfecttogetforafamilymember,

or just to save some cash.

LG Q6

$399.95, lg.com/au

You could dub this the ‘LG G6 Mini’. The Q6
offers an impressive 18:9 FullVision display
with reduced bezels. Dual SIM support is
also included, and you can easily switch
between two cards right from the device’s
navigation bar, so when you consider
that huge screen, this is a great device
for international travellers with a lust for
watching movies. It’s also a capable shooter,
with its 13MP rear camera producing some
exceptional snaps under the right
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a prettier handset for under $400.

REMARKABLE CLASS FOR LESS

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