Many OEMs started to use OLED panels on their phones. OLED displays come in handy for a better battery life or if you like using always on display. OLED displays are good at displaying colors you will get vivid and contrasty look. If you use your phone in dark environment or at night you can let eyes rest with an OLED display and set a dark theme. Depending on your theme OLEDs are able to go dim more than IPS ones. There are many reasons to go for an OLED.
POCO F3 / Redmi K40 / Mi 11X
POCO F3 is the worth every penny phone with its CPU which is overclocked version of Snapdragon 865 (870) and it has a 120 Hz high refresh OLED panel unlike the previous model POCO F2 Pro. POCO F3 has 4520 mAh battery with a power efficient CPU so you will have a good battery life with this phone. It’s with an OLED display and also cheaper than than its predecessor POCO F2 Pro. $300 price tag of POCO F3 is remarkable for people can’t afford flagship phones. Read the full specifications of POCO F3 here.
Mi 11 Lite
Mi 11 Lite has also 90 Hz OLED panel and doesn’t have a bulky design unlike POCO F3. Thickness of the phone is 6.8mm which makes it very comfortable on hand but it has a midrange Snapdragon 732G CPU. With HDR10 display of the Mi 11 Lite you can watch HDR content on YouTube or any platform supporting HDR media. Mi 11 Lite also have 10 bit display support. The colors are almost good as some top tier Samsung phones. Sadly it is not bright as Samsung’s flagships but it should be fine under the sun. If you look something brighter Mi 11 could be a better option but since this is an budget OLED suggestion we didn’t have it in the list. If you prefer your phone to has a polished design with symmetrical bezels on front over the performance with $300 price tag, you should go with Mi 11 Lite. Full specs of Mi 11 Lite here.
Redmi Note 10/11 series
Xiaomi has been selling Redmi models for a long time but Xiaomi made Redmi series’ specs closer to Xiaomi models. New Redmi phones have OLED displays. Redmi Note 11 series have stereo speakers and 90-120Hz OLED display(regular Note 11 has 90 Hz). If you look for something cheaper you can buy Redmi Note 10 with 60 Hz display. You won’t get the Mi 11 Lite’s design but it’s cheaper than it. You can find around $300. Read our Note 10 Pro review here.
Mi 9T/9T Pro/Redmi K20/Redmi K20 Pro
It’s an old Xiaomi phone but we put it in the list because it’s cheaper than Mi 10 series and coming with a 60 Hz OLED panel. It gives you the full display experience with its motorized front camera system. Mi 9T Pro has Snapdragon 855 CPU which still can handle for some more years. If it isn’t sold in your region anymore try to buy as refurbished or 2nd hand. It should be around $300. Old flagships are worth to catch on. Don’t forget 9T series have a telephoto camera and headphone jack.
So should you buy one of these to experience an OLED for cheap?
If you’ve been using IPS phones for a long time you probably didn’t see always on display feature in your settings. Pressing power button to see a notification received all the time isn’t needed at all. Why not use AOD? A quick summary of notifications and the time being shown all the time is super fast and good for you not distracting outside. You pull the phone out of your pocket and the time and notification previews are there! Repairing OLED displays are costly but it is worth to try them. If you’re getting a 2nd hand phone you need be sure display is fully functional. OLEDs are likely to wear out faster than IPSs. Control if the phone has ghost screen/ghost touching/burn-in issues.
