Oppo R11s and Xperia XA2

If the current lineup of flagship phone models -- the iPhone X, Samsung Galaxy S9, or the Pixel 2 -- fail to float your boat, then heading into a world of less hyped handsets could be just the ticket.

But it is a very crowded part of the market, and we are looking at just two models: the AU$660 Oppo R11s, and the AU$550 Sony Xperia XA2.

The R11s is Oppo's take on a not-flagship-but-mid-tier-either device. Oppo pitches the dual-SIM device as something that phone camera users will love, hitting around the AU$660 price point.

The R11s has a 6-inch, 2,160x1,080 display powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 with 4GB of memory and 64GB of storage, expandable to 256GB.

Oppo's need to make the phone so thin leaves it with a 3205mAh battery, which has less capacity than the smaller Xperia XA2.

For the Oppo, there appears to be only one design choice made, and that is to follow whatever Cupertino does as much as possible -- the R11s is the iPhone you buy when you cannot afford an iPhone.

From the home screen to the use of colour on its exterior, and the complete ripping off of iOS for the camera app, this device wants very much to be an iPhone -- even the included headphones are designed to copy Apple.

The Oppo has a very good pair of cameras on its back -- even if the software for it is yet another Apple copy-and-paste effort -- but it does come with one drawback: The size of its housing.

This means the only way to lay the phone flat is on its face.

Its rear sensors have 20 and 16 megapixels, while the front-facing camera also packs a 20-megapixel sensor.

The Xperia XA2 is a true mid-market device at AU$550. It is a dual-SIM device with a 5.2-inch 1,920×1,080 display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 processor, 3GB of memory, 32GB of inbuilt storage with support for up to 256GB cards, and a 3300mAh battery.

It doesn't top the performance charts, but it has enough to get by, and dollar for dollar is a solid device.

Sony has resisted the trend toward thin bezels on its phones for such a long time, it's possible it may still be doing it when it comes back into fashion in 20 years' time.

The XA2 has Sony's usual take on Android -- which means there is an amount of crapware that needs to be disabled or removed, and a bunch of Sony apps of questionable value -- but it does result in a device that regularly receives Android OS updates.

On the camera front, the XA2 has a 23-megapixel rear camera, along with an 8-megapixel front sensor that has a group shot setting thanks to its 120-degree camera.

In practice, pictures taken by the XA2 are not as good as those taken on the Oppo, but such are the compromises in a device that's over AU$100 cheaper.