Are These The Best Phones You Can Buy Under Rs 30,000?
Buying a smartphone in the mid-range budget can be a confusing task with so many smartphone models available from popular manufacturers like Samsung, Oppo, Xiaomi, and OnePlus. These devices usually come equipped with one or two features that you would normally only find on more expensive flagship phones, such as faster charging, high-end chipsets, or camera sensors. While one could argue that you get more bang for your buck by purchasing a smartphone in this price range, there are some trade-offs that you may have to make.
In this week’s episode of Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast, host Akhil Arora speaks with reviewer Pranav Hegde and consultant sub-editor Siddhant Chandra to discuss some of the best smartphones worth buying for under Rs. 30,000.
It’s been a while since we covered the best phones under Rs 30,000, and brands have shown a lot of interest in the Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000 segment, says Pranav. Consumers have started spending more to get more value out of their smartphones, helped by buy now pay later (BNPL) or easy EMI offers. These are not phones that come with many compromises and generally offer good value for money, he says.
Due to the pandemic and the ongoing global supply shortage, smartphones under Rs 20,000 are not offering the same value as they did till last year, Pranav explains, adding that there are a few smartphones that are debuting under Rs 10,000, but they are not offering enough value.
Akhil asks if there are “flagship” phone features that you simply don’t see on smartphones costing sub-Rs 30,000, and Pranav says that while you do get high-end features like a 108MP camera or support for 120W fast charging, you’ll usually get one standout feature that rivals a flagship phone, but the rest of the specs won’t be as good as a premium device.
He cites the Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge as an example, a smartphone with an AMOLED display and support for 120W fast charging that offers a good multimedia experience and the ability to charge your phone quickly. However, he found that the camera performance of the Xiaomi handset was not as good as that of other phones in the same price range.
Best Smartphones You Can Buy in India Under Rs 30,000
Siddhant asks Pranav to list out the best features a buyer can expect under the Rs 30,000 mark. You can get smartphones with a powerful Snapdragon 870 chipset or a MediaTek Dimensity 1300 chipset, so performance is not an issue, he says. Very few phones in this price segment have premium build quality, but you can consider phones like the Poco F4 5G or the Oppo Reno 8 5G, he adds.
When choosing a phone under the Rs. 30,000 mark, you should probably go for a phone with an AMOLED display, says Pranav. Many phones in this segment don’t offer a 3.5mm headphone jack, which means you should also check if the handset supports dual stereo speakers, he says.
Akhil wonders if it matters whether your smartphone’s display supports a 90Hz or 120Hz refresh rate. While the difference between 90Hz and 120Hz isn’t clear, you will see a difference if you’re upgrading from an older smartphone that had a 60Hz display, says Pranav.
Poco F4 5G review: is it a serious contender?
If you want a feature-rich experience, you may also want to consider the Samsung M53 5G, says Pranav. While you may not get the most powerful processor in this price segment, you do get Samsung’s One UI 4.0 skin running on Android 12, with two years of OS updates and four years of security updates, as is the case with the company’s M-series phones. It comes with a 108-megapixel quad-camera setup.
Software updates can be spotty in this price segment, says Pranav. While there’s no word on timelines, the general norm for phones priced under Rs. 30,000 is two years of software support. The Xiaomi 11i Hypercharge, for instance, launched with Android 11 out-of-the-box when Google had already announced development of Android 13. The phone eventually got an update to Android 12, bringing it on par with other phones from Samsung and OnePlus.
You can listen to all this in detail and more in our episode by hitting the play button on the Spotify player embedded above. Don’t forget to check out our guide to the best phones under Rs. 30,000, which you can find above.
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