If you don't want to pay over $1000 for a phone, then it's worth looking at an Oppo. They look and work like iPhones, but the Oppo R11 is $659 and the A73 is an unbelievable $359. Both are ridiculously slim and light.

Both have fingerprint and facial recognition, which is amazing value in the cheaper A73, and it works brilliantly, even with my glasses on. My only issue is that I have to turn the screen on for facial recognition to work, as the phone doesn't wake up when it's raised. It's faster just to use the fingerprint reader.

A friend of mine says she feels smart with her Oppo, because she's paid a fraction of the price of an iPhone, and with a case it looks just as good. Her husband dropped his without a case from their balcony onto the roof below and it still works.

I'm warming to the A73 for its value, as well as reasonable photos able to handle a range of light conditions, from a sunny backyard to a dimly lit study. It has a 16-megapixel front camera and 13-megapixel rear camera. The photos are warm, and selfies look amazing.

The A73 has something called 'beauty recognition technology', which sounds a little scary as most of us don't look like the models on its website, but it does gives selfies a little touch up. I'm not sure that my face ‘glistens like a lily in the field', but my skin looks healthy and my wrinkles don't look as deep. My grey blonde hair has a slight reddish tinge to it, not true to colour, but since I don't want too much truth in my selfies, I'm happy to put up with that.

Smudges on the A73 screen galore, but the R11's screen is surprisingly fingerprint free.