Gigaset gives three reasons not to just blindly buy a Samsung Galaxy S6

Last week was a manic time for me, with much of the time in Berlin taken up doing various activities and eating great food, courtesy of Huawei to mark its release of the Force Touch enabled Mate S.

But I did have some time to wander around IFA to see what else was going on.

For some time, my interest in phones has been moving more towards more affordable devices, rather than simply fawning over the high-end stuff that has begun to offer things like curved displays and 4K displays. Along with eye watering price tags.

There’s nothing wrong with these phones obviously, but I’ve discovered – as more people hopefully will be every day – that you can now get phones that will do everything you want for a fraction of the price.

My current, still to be reviewed properly, Wileyfox Swift is one such example, and that’s at the lower end of an optimal price range that I see as being between £100 and £400. A price range that is being filled by Motorola, Huawei, Honor, OnePlus, Wileyfox, and many more.

If you do want something that’s a bit higher spec, perhaps with support for faster 4G, an octo-core processor, fingerprint reader, higher megapixel camera etc, there are now many choices than just looking to Samsung, Sony or LG. What’s more, you will likely pay significantly less.

German company Gigaset, a company you’ve probably heard of for its DECT phones (mostly sold by BT in the UK), has decided it’s time to give it a go in a very crowded market, putting good value at the forefront but without compromising on performance.

The first phone is the Gigaset ME Pure. It’s the lowest spec model in the range, if you can call a phone with a 5-inch full HD display, octo-core Snapdragon 615 SoC, 13-megapixel camera (with 0.2-second autofocus), dual 4G SIM card slots with Cat 4 (150Mbps) support, 16GB internal storage plus card slot, and a USB-C port, low spec.

Jump to £349 and the same-sized Gigaset ME ups the processing power by switching to Snapdragon 810, boosting 4G speeds to Cat 6 (300Mbps) levels, while the camera takes a further jump to 16-megapixels and now with a dual-tone LED flash. Storage goes from 16GB to 32GB (but still with a card slot), RAM goes from 2 to 3GB and is faster too, jumping from DDR3 to DDR4 spec.

Finally, the Gigaset ME Pro ups the screen from 5-inches to 5.5-inches, and further boosts the camera to 20-megapixels. The price for the jump in screen size is £50. Oh, and you then get a 4,000mAh battery too.

Other features available on all models includes a fingerprint sensor, dual-band Wi-Fi with 802.11ac support, a wide-angle 120 degree lens with 5cm macro function, a Focus Later feature that lets you choose the optimum image from a series of shots taken in quick succession at different focal lengths, high-end HD sound, and quick battery charging. Every phone also gets a front-facing 8-megapixel camera with 81.5 degree wide-angle lens.

The ME and ME Pro phones are also equipped to work with a range of sensors, such as a heart rate monitors and step counter, as part of Gigaset’s Health Centre app. A UV sensor can also measure harmful ultraviolet radiation.

It certainly sounds like Gigaset hasn’t compromised, but obviously I can’t give much more detail until I’ve actually had a chance to properly use them and test out the claims of high quality audio, amazing imaging etc.

All three models go on sale this Autumn and more details should emerge soon on how you’ll be able to get your hands on one.

Once again, the consumer has never had so much choice and it’s a great time to be in the market for a new phone.

While there’s nothing wrong with a Samsung Galaxy S6, which seems to be the phone that shop staff will almost certainly steer new customers towards, the smart and savvy shopper will at least stop and look at what else is out there before getting their wallets out.

Full specs (provided by Gigaset)