When it comes to smartphones, most people think of popular brands with a high price tag. Usually, people look for big names like Apple and Samsung. However, there are also cheaper smartphones available on the market. In this article, we will compare the two types of smartphones and see which is the better value for your money.
Many people think that cheap smartphones are cheap because they use lower-quality materials or have fewer features. On the other hand, popular brands usually offer more features but come with a higher price tag.
However, this is not the reality. There are a number of great cheap smartphones on the market today. Most of these smartphones are Android-based but are lesser known to the market.
You may not be able to buy from a brick-and-mortar store, or at Amazon. Most of these brands are selling at smaller online marketplaces like AliExpress. If you want to get a great cheap smartphone, be sure to check out these online marketplaces.
Performance of cheap smartphones
Here we mainly discuss Android smartphones as Apple’s smartphone is another ecosystem. Android smartphones usually use either one of these two chipset manufacturers: Qualcomm Snapdragon or MediaTek.
Qualcomm Snapdragon is often regarded as the de-facto standard of smartphones, most high-end Android devices use the Snapdragon platform like the flagship 8-series, mainstream 7-series and 6-series, and the entry-level 4-series.
MediaTek has also released several chipsets to match those of other companies like Qualcomm. For example, their Dimensity and the Helio G-series chipsets provide similar capabilities to those of the Snapdragon chipset, but at a more affordable cost. Therefore, smartphone manufacturers may sell their devices at a lower price while providing comparable performance.
After-sale service of cheap smartphones
Since you’ll be buying the smartphones from online stores, it is reasonable to expect that any after-sale service will be handled remotely.
I have searched for smartphones on Aliexpress, and I find that UMIDIGI is one of the popular cheap brands selling many Android phones. Let’s compare UMIDIGI with the other big names.
Brands like UMIDIGI offers 12 months warranty and if you need the service, you will need to ship your broken smartphone to the service depot.
Here is a summary of the terms and conditions for the UMIDIGI after-sale service.
| Returning a purchase | Refund or exchange within 7 days of purchase. |
| Faulty Device | Refund or exchange within 15 days of purchase. |
| Standard Warranty Service | Standard repairing service up to 12 months of purchase. |
Warranty page on AliExpress Umidigi Official Store
Many other small android smartphone brands offer similar warranty services at their official online stores. For example, Blackview has these warranty service terms:
| Returning a purchase | Refund or exchange within 14 days of purchase. |
| Faulty Device | Refund or exchange within 30 days of purchase. |
| Standard Warranty Service | Standard repairing service up to 12 months of purchase. |
Blackview Store – Warranty Page
Blackview Store – Refund Policy
In addition, when you buy smartphones from AliExpress, your order will be covered by the AliExpress Buyer Protection Program. It is a money-back guarantee which gives you some more confidence.
After-sale service of Samsung Android smartphones
| Returning a purchase | Official Store Purchase: Refund or exchange within 15 days of purchase. Obtained through BestBuy/Samsung Store: Return to the same store within 15 days of purchase. |
| Faulty Device | Refund or exchange within 30 days of purchase. |
| Standard Warranty Service | Standard repairing service up to 12 months of purchase. |
Samsung US Help Page – Return Policy
Samsung US Help Page – Return Policy 2
To obtain service under this Limited Warranty, you must return the Product to an authorized phone service facility in an adequate container for shipping, accompanied by the sales receipt or comparable proof of sale showing the original date of purchase by the first consumer purchaser, the serial number of the Product and the seller’s name and address.
To obtain assistance on where to deliver the Product, please call SAMSUNG Customer Care at 1-800-SAMSUNG (726-7864). If SAMSUNG determines that any Product is not covered by this Limited Warranty, you must pay all parts, shipping, and labor charges for the repair or return of such Product.
You should keep a separate backup copy of any contents of the Product before delivering the Product to SAMSUNG for warranty service, as some or all of the contents may be deleted or reformatted during the course of warranty service.
https://www.samsung.com/us/support/warranty/?model=N0055216
After-sale service of Apple iPhone
| Returning a purchase | Official Stores: Refund or exchange within 14 calendar days of purchase. |
| Faulty Device | Refund or exchange within 30 days of purchase. |
| Standard Warranty Service | Standard repairing service up to 12 months of purchase. |
Apple.com Return and Refund Policy
Apple iOS Warranty Policy
As you can see, the warranty service offered between big names and cheap smartphone manufacturers doesn’t differ much. However, the service standard is much more critical than the terms. Let’s research the service level by UMIDIGI from public sources like sales reviews.
We take this UMIDIGI Bison X10G as an example. According to AliExpress, UMIDIGI sold 564 pieces of Bison X10G, and received 377 reviews.
At the same time, let’s look at the Official Samsung Galaxy S22 on Amazon
I think the customer reviews reflect that UMIDIGI is not really that bad!
Conclusion
We have made a number of comparisons when considering buying a cheap mobile phone, including the price, performance, after-sale service, and warranty.
These small manufacturers seem not to be losing much to big names like Samsung.
Would you like to give it a try?
