Let’s meet on the smartphone

The pandemic has got us down. But we can't stay down, can we? Eid is nearly here and while we can't go out and about as before, we can still meet everyone safely in one place: the smartphone. And it has an added benefit: the number of people you can meet together is almost countless. 

We've picked three smartphones to make your Eid great again. These are not your obvious choices from Apple, Samsung or Huawei. Nope, these are less about brand association and more about tech-geek functionality cool.  

Google Pixel 5 

Perfect for: Cellphone photography and 4k video 

Places to be found: Brother's electronics, Mobile Buzz BD, Bubbles, AJ Mobile Planet, Spark online shopping BD. Many other mobile shops of Bashundhara, Multiplan Centre, Jamuna Future Park also sells this brilliant piece of revolution. 

Price: 60,000 BDT – 79,000 BDT. Prices might differ from time to time. 

This 6.0" inches flagship phone of Google has an OLED Display, Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 756 5g Processor with Android 11 and 4080 mAH battery. While it is absolutely no slouch with these specs, where it really excels is in the imaging department, often embarrassing phones with three or four super expensive lenses.  

Pixel 5 has dual camera setup with Standard-wide and Ultra-wide options.  Primary camera is of 12.2 MP with f/1.7 aperture lens and ultra-wide is of 16 MP with f/2.2 aperture lens. It also has the ability to record 4k video. Even though there is no separate lens used for bokeh effect, Pixel 5 still outperforms most of the phones in the market by utilizing heavily optimised software. Night time pictures are a joy to behold with their superb clarity in low light. They kept the user interface simple and uncluttered. You get exactly the shooting modes you will use most. 

Overall, almost every shot is well-balanced, has excellent exposure and great dynamic range. However, if you want to take rapid shots, more than 7 shots sometimes overloads the buffer and you need to wait a second or two before it is cleared for more shots to take and process. It has 128 GB of storage which is satisfactory and also it is water resistant. Weight is only 151 g so you do not have to carry a lot of weight to receive your desired photo. 

Asus Rog 5

Perfect for: Offline and Multiplayer Gaming  

Places to be found: Brother's electronics, Mobile Buzz BD, most of the mobile shops of Bashundhara, Multiplan Centre, Jamuna Future Park also sells this perfect gaming beast.

Price: 62,000 BDT to 75,000 BDT. Price will depend on Ram. There are three available storage variants 8 GB of Ram, 12 GB of Ram and 16 GB of Ram. 

This phone has a Snapdragon 888 processor, 6.78 inch 1080p OLED display with a refresh rate of 144 Hz. This phone weights around 238g and 64MP camera with 1.8 aperture. It has two USB C ports. Where it differs from others is the inclusion of two touch-based triggers, perfect for gaming. And all that hardware backed by a massive 6000 MAH battery to last a long, long time. The sound quality of the twin speaker setup is tremendous. It can be connected to Kunai Gamepad 3 which will work like a joypad but for phones. It is so dedicated to gaming that it has a hardware feature called Aero Active Cooler 5 for extra cooling. Of course, all that hardware perks make it a little heavier than your average flagship. 238grams of this versus 197grams for the OnePlus 9 Pro. 

One Plus 9 Pro 

Perfect for: It is the perfect all-rounder phone.  

Places to be found: Almost in every mobile shop of Bashundhara, Multiplan Centre, Jamuna Future Park.

Price: 93,000 BDT 

This high-end flagship phone has everything that you could ask for. It has 6.7-inch QHD display which delivers top notch details and contrast with a 120 HZ refresh rate. It has paired with Hasselblad for cool camera credentials. What they've done is provide camera tweaks especially for the ultra wide angle lens. Normally, we see wide photos curves around the edges due to distortion. The Hasselblad connection helps to create almost distortion free image because the lens uses precise curves to reduce distortion. 

Its Snapdragon 888 chipset makes it faster than anything the software market is throwing at you right now. And it is a very good looking phone with an all screen face. 

You also get an unbelievable 8k with 30 frames per second. Now that is ultra sharp resolution for video though what you will watch on other than your phone is a big question for the future. It has 4,500 MAH battery which has an average days' backup for regular usage. 

What the OnePlus lacks is an option for external memory card input because of the ongoing switch to more cloud storage services. 128 GB of onboard storage may not be enough. What you get elsewhere is IP68 water resistance, officially finally. 

What you won't go wrong with OnePlus is its ability to perform smoothly regardless of what you throw at it. It may no longer be the 'budget' flagship killer but it still packs a punch above its price bracket.