The Best Smartphones You Can Buy Under Rs. 20,000 In India - March 2019

Previously, there was a clear line between the mid-range and high-end smartphones, but now the line has significantly blurred in the last couple of years. In these days, the best smartphones in the mid-range segment come with a similar metal build, high-resolution screens, solid camera setups, and also as much storage and RAM as the flagship handsets for a more affordable price.

Obviously, these phones still lack some features that make the flagships shine. However, they are still very much bang for the buck. Here is the list of the best smartphones you can buy in India under Rs. 20,000.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro is a new mid-range phone from the Chinese giant phone maker with a 48MP rear camera and a Snapdragon 675 SoC.

The phone will sport a 6.3-inch Full-HD+ LTPS in-cell display with a 2,340 x 1,080p resolution, and a tiny water-drop notch on the top. Under the hood, it will be powered by a Snapdragon 675 chipset, paired with 6GB RAM/128GB storage which is expandable up to 256GB via a microSD slot.

In terms of camera, the phone still sports a 48MP camera but instead of the Samsung GM1 sensor, it will boast a Sony IMX586 one. The main rear sensor will be paired with a 5MP sensor for depth sensing. In addition, it also gets EIS, PDAF, HDR, 1080 video recording, AI scene detection, AI Portrait 2.0, and Super Night Scene mode. For security, it comes with a fingerprint sensor mounted on the rear.

Up front, there will be a 12MP selfie camera for taking selfies and video calling. Its connectivity options include GPS, Infrared sensor, Wi-Fi, a headphone jack, FM Radio, USB-C port, dual-SIM slots, and Bluetooth 5. For software, it will run MIUI which is based on the latest Android 9 Pie at launch. There will be a 4,000 mAh battery to keep the phone ticking along with support for Quick Charge 4.0.

It is priced at Rs. 13,999 and Rs. 16,999 for the options with 4GB of RAM/64GB of storage and 6GB of RAM/128GB of storage, respectively.

Honor 10 Lite

The Honor 10 Lite is pretty much the same as the Honor 8X in terms of internal specs. Both are powered by the Kirin 710 SoC with 4 or 6GB of RAM and up to 128GB of inbuilt storage. The back camera of the Honor 10 Lite has a 13-megapixel sensor with f1.8 and a secondary 2-megapixel sensor for depth sensing.

The 24-megapixel front camera of the phone is the real game-changer here. The can camera can do pixel-binning to emulate 1.8µm pixel size and also recognizes 8 different scenes minimum. It can also learn from users’ selfie and optimize those selfies with time. In the Portrait Mode, users are able to modify the shape of their faces, the surrounding light, its color, the color and size of their eyes and even whiten their teeth.

The phone will be powered by a 3,000mAh battery and run EMUI 9, based on Android 9 Pie. And that means users can access features like Android Dashboard, Adaptive Brightness, and Adaptive Battery.

As for the price, the handset is priced at Rs. 13,999 and Rs. 17,999 rupees for the 4GB RAM and 6GB RAM options, respectively.

Honor Play

Gaming-centric smartphones are powerful devices designed to play graphics intensive kinds of games. With optimized performance features and futuristic designs, the Honor Play is one of the first devices in the segment to offer such things with a mid-range pricing.

The Honor gaming phone sports a 6.3-inch FHD+ IPS LCD panel with 1,080 x 2,340 resolution. Powering the phone is a Kirin 970 SoC, which is the same as on the flagship-tier Huawei P20 Pro. Huawei also integrates its new GPU Turbo tech to boost the processing efficiency as well as lower the power consumption during gaming sessions. In addition, it packs 4GB of RAM/64GB of storage via a microSD slot (up to 256GB).

As for cameras, it comes with 16MP and 2MP rear sensors and a 16MP selfie camera. It is backed by a 3,750mAh cell and run EMUI 8.2 based on Android 8.1 Oreo.

The variant with 4GB of RAM will set you back by Rs. 19,999 while you may have to surpass the Rs. 20,000 budget by Rs. 4,000 to get the 6GB of RAM option.

Oppo F11 Pro

The handset was just launched in the Indian market in early March. It sports a 6.53-inch LCD Panoramic display with full HD+ resolution (2340 x 1080 pixels). The screen covers 90.9% of the front and has an aspect ratio of 19.5:9. The rear panel appears stunning with impressive gradient design when its front display is notch-free and nearly bezel-less.

For performance, the handset is powered by MTK Helio P70 chipset as well as 4GB/6GB RAM and 64/128GB storage. This new smartphone runs on the ColorOS 6 which is based on Android 9.0 Pie. It also features the famous Hyperboost Acceleration Engine of OPPO which helps the overall performance accelerate during intense usage sessions.

In the camera department, the device features a pop-up 16MP front-facing camera called “Rising Camera” by the company. The pop-up selfie camera is put in the top center of the display and features Beautification mode backed by AI to improve the quality of Portrait mode to blur the background and selfies. It also supports software with the facial recognition feature.

Furthermore, powering the device is a large battery with a capacity of 4,000mAh integrated the VOOC 3.0 charging technology, which can fully charge the phone from 0 to 100 percent in only 80 minutes. Additionally, the device comes with a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor.

The OPPO F11 Pro is priced at Rs. 19,990 and Rs. 24,999 for 4GB RAM/128GB storage and 6GB RAM/64GB storage, respectively.

Poco F1

Poco F1 is the first offering from Xiaomi’s sub-brand Poco. Living to its name, Xiaomi delivered an excellent device with top-notch hardware specifications for a much more affordable price compared to flagship devices. The Poco F1 was the only phone in its price range to come with a Snapdragon 845 SoC which was the most powerful Qualcomm chipset at the time.

Up front, it packs a 6.18-inch FHD+ IPS LCD panel with 1,080 x 2,246 resolution. As mentioned, it is powered by a Snapdragon 845 SoC, paired with either 6GB/8GB of RAM and 64GB to 256GB of storage. Its cameras include 12MP and 5MP rear sensors and a 20MP selfie camera. It is backed by a large 4,000mAh cell and shipped with Android 8.1 Oreo at launch. However, Xiaomi already rolled out an Android 9 Pie update for the handset.

With all those impressive specifications, you only have to pay Rs. 19,999 for the option with 6GB RAM/64GB of storage.