We Have Reached a Plateau

The market has spoken. Consumers and manufacturers seem to agree that we have reached a plateau, a sweet-spot, a level of performance that makes affordable phones feel decent. Let's consider that over the past year alone 1678 phones have been announced. Now let's consider that 508 devices, roughly 1/3 of announcements, were scoring between 100,000-200,000 in Antutu benchmark. This group of phones include widely-sold, popular models like the Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro, Redmi Note 7*, Redmi Note 8*, Redmi 8T*, Mi A3***, Mi8 Lite Samsung A51, M40, M30s*, M30*, A70*, A60, A50*, A50s, A40, A30s, A30, A7 2018, A9 2018, Nokia 8.1**, 7.1**, Motorola Z4, One Action**, One Vision**, One Zoom, One Macro***, G8 Plus, G8 Power*, G7 Plus, G7 Power*, Google Pixel 3a, 3a XL, Honor 8C, Huawei P30 Lite, P Smart Z, P Smart 2019, and Sony Xperia 10 Plus.

*Single starred devices have reportedly stellar, long-lasting battery life.

**Double starred device have Android One

***Triple starred devices have both great battery life and Android One

*( Source: GSMArena Battery Test List: https://www.gsmarena.com/battery-test.php3?idPhone=9554#show , https://www.kimovil.com/en/compare-smartphones/f_min_dm+unveileddate.5,f_min_d+antutuBenchmark.100000,f_max_d+antutuBenchmark.200000 )

When I look at the bigger picture, what I realize is that a score of 150,000 on Antutu Benchmark sort of reflects a psychological threshold. The entire consumer market as a whole have been indicating to manufactures for some time now that at the very least a satisfactory phone will benchmark at 150,000. If we look at the most popular phone sold throughout 2019, the Galaxy A50, we see that its Antutu score lands squarely at 144,500. This phone is lauded as great by reviewers and users alike, so clearly this kind of performance is good enough. Which is interesting to note, because when I run Antutu Benchmark on my iPhone 6S Plus, I get practically the same scores, roughly between 150,000-175,000 in Antutu Benchmark. So essentially, a satisfactory phone that is released in 2019 or 2020 will perform just as well, or slightly better than my 5 year old iPhone 6s Plus.

( Sources: https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_a50-9554.php , https://www.androidauthority.com/most-popular-phones-2019-1087491/ , https://www.zdnet.com/article/most-popular-smartphones-iphone-11-iphone-xr-samsung-galaxy-a50-highlight-power-of-mid-tier-pricing/ and https://www.gsmarena.com/top_20_phones_of_2019-news-40387.php )

Yes is true, the iPhone 6s Plus is not a powerhouse by any means. It's old and many might consider it too old. For example, it can not compete with my other more recent phone, the iPhone 8, in terms of raw power and performance, but this can only be measured by doing intense tasks like gaming, shooting really long video clips, or editing videos with iMovie. Despite that, I find the performance very commendable. At the very least, browsing the web and playing games 3D games Asphalt 8 or PUBG Mobiles is handled really well by the iPhone 6s Plus. It honestly doesn't feel like a miserable or undesirable experience.

I bring up the iPhone 6s Plus, because it is essentially a budget phone, and one of the best budget phones you can buy for under 200 Euros - if you don't mind buying phones used or refurbished. Back in March 2019, I was able to pick up an iPhone 6s Plus for about $200. I know that price might seem a bit high for American readers, but here in the EU, smartphones, and tech in general, tends to be pretty pricey, and this also affect the second-hand resale market. Still, for a 200 Euro phone it feels great! I have been so happy and satisfied with this device. Large 1080p screen which makes playing games and watching Youtube a pleasure, Decent battery life (still), headphone jack provides options as I can use either lightning port and 3.5 mm jack headphones, and adequate horsepower from the SoC. But its that last point that matters most.

This is the reason why I benchmark affordable new phones against the iPhone 6s Plus. In my opinion, if a current-date budget phone can feel just as snappy or outperform the iPhone 6s Plus, then it is a good phone. If it can't beat the iPhone 6s Plus, then it's a junk budget phone in my opinion.

Any phone that scores less than the iPhone 6s Plus in Antutu benchmark is really not worth considering because I think that a score of 150,000 in Antutu is the minimum level of performance for creating a desirable experience on a smartphone. In fact, I don’t think it's just my own anecdotal experiences.

Let's take a look at Nokia, for example. Nokia just put the Snapdragon 660 SoC into the recently released 7.2. A year before that, they put the same 660 chip in the 7 Plus. To top it off, they are also putting that same chip in the upcoming, soon-to be released 5.3. This is one proof that companies are still releasing phones with 2016/2017 chips that score about 150,000 in Antutu. Judging from this, I think it is fair to say that the market is telling manufacturers that they are enjoying this sort of Snapdragon 660 level performance on affordable phones. Oblivious, this sort of chip is not ultra fast but it also not too weak or too slow. Given this, I sincerely think that for most people any SoC and RAM combination that can achieve scores better than 160,000 in Antutu Benchmark will feel like a decently performing phone.

The most powerful chips on the market, like the Apple A13 and Qualcomm Snapdragon 865, which both score well over 350,000, are honestly overkill for most users! The top tier SoCs are for people who want to edit videos, play games, and use their phones as if they are mobile computers. Anyone who is a more casual user will not feel the advantage of high performance chips other than they may notice all their apps load super-fast and their phone rarely experience freezing and RAM crashes. The market has spoken. Consumers and manufacturers seem to agree that we have reached a plateau, a sweet-spot, a level of performance that makes affordable phones feel decent.