There’s no doubt that the iPhone is a beautiful device and has been since the first one launched back in 2007 costing £269, making it a competitive choice amongst many of the other mobile phone brands. However, the base of all iPhones, the iPhone Xs will now set you back £999. This significant increase makes the iPhone an expensive piece of equipment.
It’s not all doom and gloom though. Many iPhone alternatives are offering an Android-based system, arguably giving you more for your money. Here are a few options to consider, making switching easier.
iPhone XS alternatives – Samsung Galaxy S9 / S9 Plus
Let’s begin with a cost comparison. The Samsung Galaxy S9 costs around £739 and the Galaxy S9 Plus costs about £869. Apple’s primary iPhone, the iPhone XS starts at £999. Both phones, the iPhone Xs the and Galaxy S9 offer a 5.8in device, the S9 plus provides a slightly larger screen at 6.2in, but all come with a 64GB internal memory option. For the same features but cheaper, by going Android, you can save money instantly.
Image Source: SmartphoneChecker
Although the iPhone XS has a slightly faster processor, the truth is that you really can’t notice the difference in daily use. Arguably, Samsung is ahead of Apple too as the S9’s screen is the best in the market, its camera is slightly better, and importantly, you can expand the internal storage with a microSD card, which unfortunately you can’t do with the iPhone which is capped at 64GB.
iPhone Xs Max alternatives – Samsung Galaxy Note 9 / Huawei Mate 20 Pro
The iPhone Xs Max is a bigger version of the iPhone Xs. It has a 6.5in display, a larger battery and the same 64GB storage, costing £1,099. The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 offers a 6.4in screen and starts at £899 for a 128GB model. The device also allows you to expand storage by adding a microSD card of up to 512GB in size so that you can save a fair bit of money opting for the smaller version and adding in your own card. Like the S9 above, it has the best-in-class screen, a brilliant camera and includes an S Pen for interacting with the device and features a headphone jack.
The Huawei Mate 20 Pro has the same £899 price tag as the iPhone XS, 128GB storage and a very similar 6.39in screen size. Its triple-camera arrangement takes some of the best photos, and it is the first non-Apple phone to launch with a 7nm processor. The option to expand the memory is available by using nano-memory cards, which are more expensive than your standard microSD.
iPhone XR alternatives – OnePlus 6T / Pocophone F1
Starting at £749, the iPhone XR is considered the budget option from iOS and houses the same processor as the iPhone Xs and Xs Max which means its performance quality is still quite high.
An alternative to this is the OnePlus 6T which has Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 845 processor available in either 6 or 8GB of RAM. However, there is no microSD slot, which means you will need to pay extra for more than 128GB of internal space. The 256GB model costs about £579, which still makes it more affordable than the iPhone XR. There’s also no headphone jack, but the device does come with an on-screen fingerprint reader.
If you’re looking for a cheaper alternative, the Pocophone F1 might be a good choice. It’s the new sub-brand from Xiaomi, and it manages to push the same Snapdragon 845 processor into an incredible £330 package with an expandable microSD slot.
iPhone SE alternatives – Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact / Google Pixel 2
The iPhone SE has the same internals as the 6s. An Android alternative to this would be the Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact. The XZ2 Compact houses the Snapdragon 845 processor. Due to its Google operating system, it will be guaranteed to have updates first. Unfortunately, it does not have expandable storage, but it does have one of the best cameras around.