India is a price-sensitive market and will always have enough demand for affordable Android phones.
The segment is led by Chinese players like Xiaomi, Realme, Infinix and others. Even brands like Samsung, Motorola, and home-grown brands like Micromax have also started making their presence felt in the budget and entry-level price bracket.
It is expected that the increased consumer preference and shrinking price differences will drive consistent growth in this segment further. This price range has so far gradually inherited features from the mid-range segment, like better cameras, massive batteries, decent displays, and so on.
1. Realme 7i
2. Samsung Galaxy M12
3. Realme Narzo 50A
4. Poco M3
5. Infinix Note 10
6. Moto G31
All the phones listed below are 4G-enabled - in case you like to see the list of budget 5G phones, we've got a guide for that too.
Combined with affordable 4G internet packs, these phones can offer you great speed so that you could enjoy uninterrupted gaming sessions and binge on your favourite movies.
The phones priced below this price range are best suited for light to moderate regular usage as they come with chipsets that aren’t meant for heavy usage. However, you can easily find a phone with significantly huge RAM and a decent display for under Rs. 12,000. Also, these phones offer large storage options, enough to store heavy media.
So, let’s just dive straight into the options.
One of the cheapest phones with a 90Hz screen in India. It sports a 6.5-inches HD+ LCD display and the device is powered by a Snapdragon 662 which is paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage for the base variant. The phone is packed with a 5,000mAh battery with 18W fast charging support.
There is a quad-camera setup that includes a primary 64MP primary sensor with f/1.8 aperture, an 8MP ultra-wide lens followed by a 2MP macro, and a 2MP Black and white portrait lens. You also get UIS support on the rear camera setup offering stabilized video recording. Selfies are handled by a 16MP shooter. The phone comes with a physical fingerprint sense housed at the rear panel.
Here comes an option from Samsung for this price range. The Samsung Galaxy M12 is powered by a 7mm Exynos 850 SoC and offers a decent 90Hz display. The device features a matte finish which adds premium-ness to the phone.
The device also packs in a massive 6,000mAh battery and is paired with 15W fast charging. Further, there is a 48MP ISOCELL GM2 main camera, a 5MP wide-angle lens followed by a 2MP macro, and a 2MP depth sensor. However, you may not find the camera pretty decent.
On the front, there is a dew-drop notch that houses the selfie camera of 8MP. The phone runs on One UI 3 Core based on Android 11 out of the box.
Realme Narzo 50A comes as a decent and affordable 4G smartphone. It gets a massive battery capacity, 50MP rear shooter, and 16MP front shooter.
Under the hood, the phone is powered by a MediaTek Helio G85 processor with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage at this price segment. The phone gets a triple rear camera at the back with the primary sensor being a 50MP shooter coupled with a 2MP depth sensor and a 2MP macro camera.
It gets an HD Plus LCD display, a massive 6,000mAH battery capacity, and an 18W fast-charging via USB Type-C port.
The Poco M3 is one of the most affordable Poco devices which offers 6GB RAM of RAM for as low as Rs 11,000. The key highlight of the device is the unique dual-tone finish with a rectangular block that sports the triple camera module and Poco branding. You get the same 6.53-inch Full HD+ display with TÜV Rheinland certified for low-light consumption and Widevine L1 certified to stream HD content.
Under the hood, the Poco M3 is Snapdragon 662 processor which offers decent performance. The Poco M3 sports a 48MP primary sensor, a 2MP macro lens, and a 2MP depth. Selfies are handled by an 8MP shooter. To keep the device running there is a massive 6000mAh battery unit with 18W fast charging support.
The Infinix Note 10 is powered by gaming-centric MediaTek Helio G85 and is paired with up to 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. It comes with a large 6.95-inch Full HD+ LCD screen, but it misses out on a high refresh rate.
In the camera department, the Infinix Note 10 sports a 48MP main camera along with two 2MP cameras while the selfies are handled by a 16MP camera. It is backed by a 5,000mAh battery with support for an 18W fast charge. Other features include a side-mounted fingerprint scanner, Android 11 OS, dual-band Wi-Fi, headphone jack, and Type-C port.
The Moto G31 is the latest smartphone from Motorola that comes under this price range to offer decent specifications. It includes an FHD Plus AMOLED display, however, you’d only get the 60Hz refresh rate, compared to others in this segment that offers a 90Hz screen.
Under the hood, the phone gets the MediaTek Helio G85 processor coupled with the MaliG52 MC2 GPU. It gets 4GB RAM and 64GB onboard storage. The phone supports memory expansion of up to 1TB with the help of a microSD card slot. It gets a 50MP sensor, an 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera, and a 2MP sensor for taking macro shots. There is a 13MP front-facing camera housed under a hole-punch cutout. The 5,000mAh battery capacity gets 20W fast-charging support over USB Type-C.
- Best phones under Rs 25,000 in India
- Best phones in India for 2022
- Upcoming smartphone launches in India
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