‘Huawei Nova 3i’ – The Best Midrange Smartphone in Nepal [Readers Choice Award 2018]

Yay! We finally found enough time to publish this article. We know, the appropriate time for publishing this article was a while ago but we got bogged down by other tasks. But, January is still rolling and the year is as fresh as it could be. So, without further delay, we are here to present to you, the results of the best midrange smartphone poll.

About the Poll

If you didn’t take part in this poll or didn’t know about it, I’ll tell you a little bit about it. We talk about smartphones all over the year here at TechLekh. And, with the end of 2018 in sight, we felt it was the right time to show some appreciation for the good ones. We divided the phones available in Nepal into 3 categories – budget, midrange, and premium – based on their prices. We listed approximately 8 smartphones in each category and asked you people to vote for their favorite. And you guys responded enthusiastically. We got about 500 votes in this midrange poll and we now have the results in our hands.

The List

An eligible ‘midrange phone’ cost between Rs. 30K and Rs. 60K. Numerous phones from various companies were released in this price range in Nepal. But we had to whittle down the number of phones to include in this review. The phones that we included in the list were:

1. Huawei Nova 3
2. Huawei Nova 3i
3. Xiaomi Mi A2
4. Xiaomi Poco F1
5. Samsung Galaxy A7 2018
6. Vivo V11
7. Nokia 6.1 Plus
8. Oppo F9

The Results

As you can see, all of these smartphones were some of the best midrange phones to be released in Nepal. We tested most of them ourselves. And to be honest, we thought we knew which smartphone would take the crown of the best mid-range smartphone 2018. But you surprised us. The throne for the Readers Choice Award Best Midrange SmartPhone of 2018 went to the Huawei Nova 3i.

Nova 3i collected 177 votes (29.8%) out of 594 total votes cast. Coming in at second was what we thought should have been the phone at the top – Xiaomi Pocophone F1. You guys gave the F1 158 votes(26.6%). So, the difference isn’t much but it’s significant enough to differentiate the rank.

The competition for the third position was tough with three phones – Xiaomi Mi A2, Nova 3, and the Samsung Galaxy A7 2018 – going head to head against each other. But the Xiaomi Mi A2 came out on top to snatch the 3rd position with 54 votes. Nova 3 got the consolation prize with 51 votes (3 less than the Mi A2) and the Samsung Galaxy A7 2018 was voted the 5th best mid-range phone in Nepal by you guys.

Again, in this price category too, a Vivo smartphone came at the bottom.

My Opinion

So, we already told you that we were surprised by the results. I didn’t expect any phone to win over the Pocophone F1. Heck, I would have even wagered that Pocophone F1 would have won had it been listed in the premium price range category. But, it seems that Nova 3i won over the hearts of the people. And I can see why. For one, Nova 3i is way stylish than the Pocophone. Its build quality is probably unmatched by anything between 30K and 60K except for the Nova 3 which is twice as expensive. Also, Nova 3i came to Nepal way earlier than the Pocophone and they have reached a far larger audience than the Pocophone. It helps that the Nova 3i doesn’t periodically go out of stock like the Pocophone.

But, in terms of performance to price ratio, I still think nothing can beat the Xiaomi Pocophone F1. If you want absolute power at the absolute best price, go for the Pocophone. But you have to search for it at offline stores because it’s out of stock at Daraz at the time of writing this article. Also, don’t think that Pocophone only has the raw horsepower and nothing else. It has got a beautiful, bright screen, a headphone jack, USB C, some decent pair of cameras, and even dual speakers. It is an all-round package, only brought down by its build quality.

The third position for the Mi A2 is understandable. It trades the power of the Pocophone for the thin, svelte, metal build that appeals to most users. If you didn’t want to buy the Pocophone from Xiaomi, Xiaomi Mi A2 was your next best Xiaomi option.

What bugs me is Oppo F9’s sixth position. I myself tested this phone here at Techlekh and I was instantly enamored by this phone. The form factor of this phone fits perfectly in my palms. The teardrop notch was small, new, and interesting. The screen was huge but the phone was easy to use one-handed. It could play some games too, watching videos on this near edge-to-edge display was a joy. This was the best smartphone released by Oppo in Nepal in 2018 and it should have been much higher on this list, possibly in the third position.

So, these results tell us that Huawei is quickly taking over the mid-range market of Nepal with its Nova Products. Two of their phones are on the top 5. But Xiaomi is still riding strong with two of their phones in the top 3. Until it stops to cram ridiculous specs into ridiculous prices, it probably will sit around the top of this list. The data also shows that Oppo is catching up to the competition possibly because of its grand marketing schemes but it still has got a lot to do because they produced one of the best midrange smartphones of 2018 and people didn’t recognize that.