Can these $100 Android phones replace my flagship? The result after weeks of testing

It’s easy to think that you have to drop hundreds — if not thousands — of dollars to get a new smartphone. If you want a flagship smartphone from the big brands, then yes, you’re going to experience some serious weight reduction in the wallet or purse.

But fear not, because if what you’re after is a cheap and cheerful smartphone to handle things like calling, messaging, social media, and browsing the web, then you have options for handsets that you can pick up for under $100.

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I’ve been testing two of them, the Wave 8<!–> and the Wave 8C–>, both from Blackview, a company better known for building rugged handsets.

A lot in common

Looking at the spec sheet, these handsets have a lot in common.

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They both have a 6.56-inch IPS LCD display with 720-by-1,612 screen resolution and 450 nits of brightness; run Android 14 Go edition with DokeOS 4.0; have a 13-megapixel main camera and an 8-megapixel wide-angle camera; a 5,000 mAh battery that provides up to 18 hours of continuous calls or 26 days of standby; a microSD card slot to boost storage; and a 3.5 mm headphone jack.

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All three handsets are offered in Sunset Purple, Dawn Blue, and Dusk Black finishes and are supplied with a silicone case.

But there are differences

The Wave 8 has a 90 Hz screen compared with the 60 Hz screen of the Wave 8C. The processors, RAM, and storage also differ.

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The Wave 8 packs the octa-core, 12-nm Unisoc T606 from 2021, running at 1.6 GHz with a Mali-G57 MP1 GPU; 4 GB of RAM (expandable to 12 GB using virtual RAM); 128 GB of storage; and has a side-mounted fingerprint reader. The Wave 8C has a much older octa-core, 28-nm Unisoc SC9863A from 2018, running at 1.6 GHz with a PowerVR GE8322 GPU; 2 GB of RAM (expandable to 6 GB using virtual RAM); and 64 GB of storage.

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The Wave 8C is definitely the slower of the two handsets, and you feel this, especially when they are side by side. Booting up, opening apps, and switching between apps are faster and smoother on the Wave 8, and both handsets benefit from boosting the RAM to use the maximum virtual RAM.

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Using PassMark Performance Test for Android–>, it’s easy to see the difference: the Wave 8 scored 2,949 in the CPU tests, 11,995 in the RAM tests, 17,794 in the disk tests, and 13,999 and 14,348 in the 2D and 3D graphics tests, respectively. The Wave 8C scored 1,232 in the CPU tests, 3,536 in the RAM tests, 13,013 in the disk tests, and 5,470 and 2,036 in the 2D and 3D graphics tests, respectively.

Those are quite some differences.

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Charging is also different. Both are limited to wired charging, but the Wave 8 charges at up to 10 W, while the Wave 8C can only manage 5 W.

ZDNET’s buying advice

Both the Blackview Wave 8–> and the Wave 8C<!–> definitely fall into the low-end category, but both are perfectly capable of taking photos, handling social media, and browsing the web. Throwing demanding tasks like photo or video editing at the handsets makes the hardware limitations noticeable.

The display’s 450-nit maximum brightness also becomes problematic in bright sunlight, and it is the reason that flagship smartphones’ displays peak at 2,000 nits these days.

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But remember that these are budget handsets, with the Wave 8 coming in at $90, while you can pick up a Wave 8C for $75. For the money, these handsets really deliver.

Personally, I’d go for the Wave 8 over the Wave 8C because that extra RAM and the more modern processor make a big difference for only a few dollars. But if you have a situation where you need a super-budget phone – maybe for the workshop, for hiking, or for the kids – the Wave 8C is a great smartphone for the price.

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