Also worth considering: ZTE Blade V8 Pro

Likewise, there aren’t too many reasons to take $230 ZTE Blade V8 Pro over the Moto G5 Plus, but it has bits that could appeal to the right person. Its battery lasts even longer than that of the Moto, it has a larger 5.5-inch 1080p screen, and it has a similar dual-camera setup as the Honor 6X. And while the rubberish back feels cheap to me, it does make the phone easier to grip than most of its peers. It also supports faster 802.11ac WiFi, which is lacking on both the Moto G5 Plus and Honor 6X.

But the camera isn’t as sharp as Moto's or Huawei's, and the dual-camera tricks aren’t as smooth as they are on the Honor 6X. It’s noticeably thicker and heavier than both the Moto and the Huawei, too. And while ZTE isn’t as aggressive as Huawei in skinning its software, it still sticks the phone with the older Android 6.0, and hasn’t said when it plans to update. Its fingerprint sensor doesn’t work as consistently as the others, too.

I can see the Blade V8 Pro making sense if you need to be as frugal as possible — its Snapdragon 625 chip and 3GB of RAM should make it a hair faster than the entry-level Moto G5 Plus — but it’s just not as pleasant to use as its rivals.