Best budget smartphones that don’t miss out on functionality

Best for: Performance perfection astatine a piffling price

HMD’s archetypal first device, The Pulse Pro has a batch riding connected its exquisitely constrictive shoulders, being the exemplary by which galore volition justice the full contiguous presumption of the institution and perchance adjacent unreserved to condemn the aboriginal of HMD arsenic an full entity too, truthful nary pressure.

Available successful 3 colours, Glacier Green, Twilight Purple and Black Ocean, the Pulse Pro is simply a bully size astatine 6.5-odd-inches, yet weighs a near-nothing astatine 196g, each portion feeling alternatively robust successful the manus for a caller 4G smartphone that costs a piffling £150.

Decidedly sleek, with a premium consciousness to it, everything you would anticipation for is connected the outside, including an on/off switch/fingerprint reader, sim tray, volume, USB-C input and 3.5mm headphone jack, portion circular the backmost you’ll find a humongous 50MP camera (more connected that to come) and that soon to beryllium ubiquitous HMD logo. But, arsenic charismatic arsenic an enactment arsenic the Pulse Pro intelligibly is, it’s what’s connected the wrong that counts, truthful clip to interruption retired the metaphorical crowbar.

Running connected the existent latest mentation of Android (14), astatine the bosom of the Pulse is simply a Unisoc T606, an entry-level octa-core processor with 2 beefy ARM Cortex A75 cores clocking up to 1.6GHz and six oomph-efficient ARM Cortex A55 cores clocking up to 1.6GHz, portion the GPU appears successful the signifier of a Mali-G57 MP1, truthful the caller HMD is much than geared up for speed, connectivity, graphics and gameplay, truthful don’t expect to acquisition immoderate lag nary substance however brutal your modular astute day. This comes served successful conjunction with 128GB of storage, expandable to 256GB with the summation of a MicroSD card, and an ample 6GB RAM (virtual RAM options: 4GB, 6GB, 8GB). All of which means that the Pulse Pro is surely saying each the close things.

Screen-wise, the 6.5-and-a-bit inch IPS LCD HD+ HID features a 1612 x 720 resolution, with a 90Hz refresh complaint and emblematic brightness of 480-nits, truthful images are sharp, elaborate and vibrant, portion scrolling the surface is smooth.

When it comes to connectivity, the Pulse Pro tin negociate web speeds up to 4G and comes packing Bluetooth 5.0 and NFC too, to support the contactless options open. So, no, nary ultra-fast 5G for those with conscionable nary damn clip to wait, but arsenic 4G is accelerated capable for astir unless you’re readying connected battering bandwidth, you’ll beryllium fine.

With a mighty 50MP camera some beforehand and back, implicit with 2MP Depth and 2MP Macro snappers astir the rear, taxable shots and selfies are stunningly crisp and detailed, portion the slow-mo video mode is astir apt much amusive than it should be.

Finally, we travel to the battery, a capacious 5000mAh matter that tin present up to 59 hours of power, features 20W accelerated charging, and is bully for immoderate 800 afloat charging cycles. What happens aft 800? You simply bid a replacement artillery and alteration it yourself. Yep, the HMD Pulse Pro, dissimilar astir others of its astute ilk, volition support going for arsenic agelong arsenic you do.

In all, then, handsome and power-packed, the Pulse Pro is simply a ‘budget’ smartphone that goes large connected design, physique quality, battery, and seamless performance; and astatine this price, it bears the people of an implicit bargain.