2018 has been a great year for smartphones.

The Pixel 3 is killing it on the camera side.

We've got the OPPO Find X,

which might be the coolest design yet,

and we have the good old Pocophone,

which at $300 has kinda changed the game.

I just realized that this is a blue phone

on a blue background.

Does that look weird?

Wait, I'll hold it in this hand.

The Pocophone, it's changing the game.

For real though, this phone has changed the way a lot

of smartphones are being sold right now.

Previously the OnePlus really was kind of like the standard

of the, sort of, benchmark phone

at a much cheaper price, right?

So you get all the flagship specs,

but usually at a couple hundred dollar discount.

However, this year the Pocophone

is doing the exact same thing,

but it's something close to $300.

While most phones at this price point

have significantly slower internals than the flagships of the world,

that's where the Pocophone definitely differs.

Inside, it has the exact same Snapdragon 845 processor

as in the $1,000 Galaxy Note9.

The battery, again, the exact same size as that Note9,

and when you take a look at the design,

it's fairly similar to the notch on the iPhone.

And while yes it is made of plastic,

when you consider that all of this is coming in a phone

that's just a little bit over $300,

it is seriously impressive.

That's where this comes in.

The brand new Nokia 7.1,

which at $350 might just be able to go head to head.

The biggest difference here is in build.

So the Pocophone does come in a couple of configurations.

This is the Armored Edition with the aramid fiber back,

and you also have the cheaper plastic.

But neither of these really can hold up

to the glass and metal of that Nokia.

This looks so much nicer.

Not only does it have that glass,

but it's also made out of aluminum,

and personally, as far as I'm concerned,

it feels a lot nicer, right?

Sure they definitely spent a lot more of the budget

on the build quality versus the internals,

but you spend all day holding the phone.

I do think that's an important consideration.

Of course, though none of this really matters too much

if you put these phones in a case.

As much as I like the feeling of the Nokia,

it is a lot more fragile right?

If I drop the phone,

I'm gonna shatter the back more than likely.

Whereas with the Pocophone, might be plastic,

but if I scratch it whatever.

I guess not whatever,

but I don't have to replace the entire phone

as apposed to this guy.

Considering that both phones are pretty cheap,

the screens are not bad at all.

The Pocophone is a little bit bigger.

Although, they're about the same resolution.

The main difference here is with the speakers.

Neither of these phones sound all that great.

So the main issue is that they both

have a single bottom firing speaker,

which is a little tinny and easy to cover.

But the good thing is that they both

have our friend jack, headphone jack.

That headphone jack is useful

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With a wide soundstage thanks to the semi-open design,

not only do they sound way better

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but on top of that they're comfortable.

They're fairly lightweight.

They have replaceable ear cups as well as a cable.

It's a really, really solid package.

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The real difference between these two phones

is in performance.

Run them through Geekbench, and you will see

that there is a massive lead for the Pocophone.

It is really playing in a different league.

It also has the advantage of a heat pipe

to help keep the phone cool while you're gaming,

and on top of that, the Pocophone has more RAM,

six gigs versus four.

There isn't as big of a real-world difference

in performance as you might expect,

but it is very clear to me that the Pocophone

is a superior performer.

And that goes a long way,

especially if you wanna use this phone for a few years.

It should be able to keep up.

It also helps that the Pocophone

has a significantly bigger battery.

4,000 milliamp hours versus 3,000 on the Nokia.

Now at this point it might seem like the Pocophone

is the very obvious winner,

but there's one key area that the Nokia has over it,

and that is software.

So this is using Xiaomi's MIUI on top of Android 8.1,

which is a little bit of skinned version

of Android shall we say.

Whereas this is completely stock version of Android 9.0 Pie,

and it is Android One

compatible, which means that this is guaranteed at least two years

of solid software updates.

Whereas the Pocophone, it's got an update so far,

but who knows how long that will last.

Now software can be a subjective thing,

and maybe you might like some of the extra features

or the way that they've skinned the Pocophone,

but as far as I'm concerned,

I will definitely take stock Android any day

and the very least,

I would wanna put a launcher on the Poco.

Around back, both have a similar setup

with a 12 megapixel main camera as well as a depth sensor

for portrait mode and for looking like you have two cameras

on the back of your phone.

Honestly, both are totally usable,

but I will give a slight edge to the Pocophone.

Not only does it consistently give really nice results

right out of the box, but on top of that,

I think a lot of people just will prefer these slight tuning

of the image that Poco is doing.

The Nokia looks fine,

but I do feel like I trust the Pocophone

just a little bit more,

and that goes especially in low light.

The Nokia does have a little bit of an advantage

when it comes to selfies,

but as far as video goes, again,

I'm gonna give it to the Pocophone.

That 4K video actually looks really impressive.

At least here in the U.S. both of these phones

are easily available on Amazon,

links in the description.

But the main difference here is that

while the Nokia does come with a warranty here,

the Pocophone actually doesn't have any U.S. warranty.

Your results will vary based on what country you're in,

but that might be a deal breaker for some people.

The build quality and especially the software

is really impressive on the Nokia,

but I have to give this one to the Pocophone.

Not only is it a great overall package,

but with the hundreds of dollars you're gonna save

versus a bigger, more expensive flagship,

you could even buy yourself a pair

of shiny new Massdrop headphones,

available right now (laughing) link in the description.

(funky music)

Link in the description.

Go check (laughs).