In 2015, there's no meaningful difference between a $100 phone and a six times pricier iPhone or Galaxy

• 4.7” screen with sufficient sharpness for most people and great colors on both
• Vastly different processors, but the end result is nearly equally smooth performance for most daily tasks
• 8-megapixel camera that does comparably well in good light and is comparably useless in low light
• Battery that lasts slightly more than a day (the Xiaomi even has fast charging that the iPhone lacks!)
• You can play Asphalt and Modern Combat on both (details may or may not appear a bit better on the iPhone)
• You can use all of the platforms’ apps with no limitation on both

But doesn't this go against all that the media (us included) has been saying?!

Yes, and no. With less and less differentiation between even the cheapest $100 Android phone and a high-end iPhone, we’ve made sure to cover the details at much more detail to illuminate those tiny changes better. This, however, does not make the tiny details any more important.

Fact remains that now there is much less practical difference between a $100 phone and a top-notch $650-$750 iPhone or Galaxy than there was even a couple of years ago.

Android, in particular (Windows Phone also to some extent, but it still lacks crucial apps that would make it hard to get a heart-felt recommendation for a daily driver phone), has dealt with the huge issue of lag and the falling price of components has made cameras on cheap phones good enough for most people that won't project unrealistic expectations on a small-sensor phone camera.

Expensive high-end phones are effectively more of a fashion and status statement

As competition in smartphones heats up, we are seeing affordable phones now made using the same high quality materials as the much advertized high-end ones.

The Blu Vivo Air is a recent example: a $180 phone (that's full retail price, with no tied contract) thinner than the iPhone and made of solid aluminum is one of a few up and coming devices that promise to leave more expensive phones the privilege of being status symbols only, without having a functional advantage in terms of pure construction and fashion style. We've seen this long ago in the industry of traditional watches - there is no huge need to wear a watch these days (they do have the useful function of telling time, but with a phone in your pocket, you don't really need a watch to tell the time), but people wear them for reasons of style. As years have passed, even less expensive models have become extremely well-made, leaving more expensive watches serve as a demonstration of their owners' high position in society, without the watches themselves being functionally much better.

This revolution in access to information has come largely thanks to Android

Even though the Apple iPhone started the era of modern smartphones (others, like Nokia, made ‘smartphones’ earlier, but looking from today;s perspective of apps and all-capacitive screens and all-touch interface, those phones simply do not qualify), it was Android that built the open ecosystem of phone vendors and the free market and competition did the rest. The end result? Devices like the Motorola Moto G, Moto E, Xiaomi Redmi 2A, Meizu M1 Note, Blu Vivo Air, and many others.

The dream of a good $100 smartphone has become reality

Google's Android, however, is not the only enabler of the affordable smartphone revolution: the name MediaTek deserves credit where credit is due. The company pushed the envelope with its affordable chips powering most affordable phones nowadays, and made it possible to have this practically compromise-free $100 Android smartphone experience.

What really matters, though, is the end result: the dream of a $100 smartphone with no huge compromises has become a reality.

Right below, you'd find some suggestions for such affordable devices.

Price: $100 off-contract