BUYER’S CHECKLIST

WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A SUB-$1,000 SMARTPHONES.

SCREEN SIZE ISN’T EVERYTHING:

A bigger screen means more space for viewing your social media feeds, but check the ‘pixels per inch’ (ppi) number to tell you how clear text and images appear on the screen (a higher number is better)

WIDTH IS IMPORTANT

Bigger screens typically mean a wider handset, which can be more challenging to grip one-handed. But newer devices have removed the bezels around the screen to minimise width while maximising display size.

SECURITY FEATURES

Smartphones have moved on from basic PIN number security to things like fingerprint readers and facial recognition. Some phones do this better than others – Apple’s Face ID is the best; the latest in-screen fingerprint sensors like the one on the Huawei P30 are still finicky

AVAILABILITY OF ACCESSORIES

This is a non-issue for iPhone owners (and to a lesser extent Samsung), but the availability of cases for other smartphones is usually few and far between. Vendors like Huawei, Oppo, and even Samsung have taken to supplying cases in the box – and handsets often have pre-applied plastic screen protectors

SUPPORT

Cracked screens are almost inevitable, but getting them fixed can be challenging for brands other than Apple and Samsung

STORAGE CAPABILITY

If you’re shooting lots of video or want to store offline content on your phone, you’ll want a minimum of 128GB storage. Alternatively, look for a phone with microSD expansion, which is becoming an increasing rarity

TIMELY UPDATES

It’s worth checking the vendor’s track record for timely software, security and OS updates. Apple, Google and Android One smartphones get their software straight from the horse’s mouth, but Samsung and Oppo have traditionally been slow in this regard – and Huawei looks like it could be shut out of the Google ecosystem permanently.