In the wake of the recent announcement of the Chinese Xiaomi two new devices – a smartphone and a tablet, I asked myself this question: is metal in budget devices good or bad, and how much is this solution in demand? About a month ago, the Chinese Meizu introduced the M1 Metal smartphone, a device based on YunOS (which is AOSP, but not quite Android) for the domestic market, but that's not the point. The main thing is the case of an alloy with a predominance of various metals and a fingerprint scanner. Now Xiaomi have shown Reddmi Note 3 – again metal and again a scanner. What unites them, in addition to the above? Low cost at home.
In fact, the reasons for these companies' decision to use metal in budget smartphones are obvious. There is a tough competition going on, in the Chinese market it is not only a fight 'Xiaomi against Meizu', which accidentally took the leading positions, but also the struggle of much larger companies – Huawei and Lenovo. Plus, there are ZTE and many smaller manufacturers out there. All of these brands make different smartphones, from very cheap to quite expensive. We, users, usually hear about expensive devices; it so happens that most journalists and bloggers want to talk about the flagships, while people, oddly enough, buy completely different smartphones, cheap. And even in China, where salaries are growing and life seems to be getting better, the share of budget smartphones is many times higher than the share of flagships. Therefore, in order to somehow distinguish their budget smartphones from competitors, companies are gradually adding more and more chips from expensive devices to them. The scanner and the use of metal are just such things.
But if a scanner is an unconditionally convenient and useful thing, and in the worst case, you can simply not use it, then with a metal case, not everything is so simple. For example, I really like devices made of metal. The combination of glass, hand-cooling aluminum or even steel is great! To me, such devices also seem practical – traces and stains from hands are invisible, the case does not get dirty, and when you fall, the worst thing is usually a dent. But that's my opinion, and I'm sure there are those who like plastic. Usually matte, sometimes glossy. It has its drawbacks, but it also has its advantages. However, the device made of metal even looks more expensive than its plastic counterpart in most situations. An illustrative example of this is just the new Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 and its previous version, Redmi Note 2. With similar characteristics Redmi Note 3 is clean outwardly much more advantageous. Therefore, I ask myself the question – how justified is it to make budget smartphones in metal cases? Will not such a step devalue the flagship devices of the same manufacturers in the future? It seems to me that not everything is as straightforward as it looked a couple of months ago, when I just saw Meizu M1 Metal and rejoiced at the arrival of aluminum cases in the segment of inexpensive tubes. What do you think?