We’re quite far into 2018 and this year, we’ve seen some really great phones. Veterans of the market worked on improving their flagships while newcomers worked on finding the delicate balance between power and price. It has been a great year for consumer tech with the release of genre defining technologies like the bezel-less displays, massive bat­teries and higher screen pixel counts. But as all eyes have been set on the top end of this market, there are some really interesting devices for people looking for some good, affordable smartphones this year. Let’s take a look.

Xiaomi Mi A2

Price: Rs 30,999

Xiaomi’s second crack at the use of Android One, the Xiaomi A2, is a device that performs way over its price range. It’s got all the new features: an 18:9 ratio display screen, chamfered edges and aluminum uni-body design. The phone looks gorgeous from the outside—though perhaps a touch too much iPhone-ish—and is easy to use. The Snapdragon 660 SOC is paired with 4 GB of RAM, ensuring everything runs blazingly fast. All of this performance comes to life inside a beautiful 5.99-inch LCD screen that pushes out Full HD+ (2160 x 1080) resolution of data. As for the camera, the device has a dual camera set up at the back, with one camera sporting a 12 MP sensor and the other a 21 MP sensor. Both have a wide f/1.8 aperture which helps the device produce high-quality images. For the price point, the Xiaomi Mi A2 is an excellent phone to have in your pocket.

Huawai Nova 3i

Price: Rs 38,999

Huawei has been marketing flagships in Nepal while leaving the lower and mid-ranged markets to its sub-brand, Honor, which is why a mid-ranged device from Huawei comes as a surprise to all of us. A boiled down version of Huawei’s Nova 3, the device flaunts its big brother’s excellent design aesthetics. It’s a sandwiched metal and glass design with glass on both sides. The front houses a fetching 5.84-inch edge-to-edge display, with a notch on top. The device is also very powerful with Huawei’s inhouse Silicon Kirin 710 SOC, amply supported by 4GB of RAM. It has a fingerprint reader at the back and comes with a 3340 mAh battery. The selling point of this phone is also the dual camera setups, both at the front and the back; the rear houses a 16 MP sensor and 2MP monochrome sensor while the front houses a 24 MP sensor with another 2 MP monochrome sensor. Considering all the features and hardware that Hua­wei has crammed into the Nova 3i, the phone is an excellent mid-ranged smartphone.