The 5 Best Smartphones In India That Are Under Rs. 10,000

It’s pretty tough trying to find a phone that can fit in the price bracket of under Rs. 10,000. The problem isn’t about quantity, no, most major phone makers on the market at the moment have one or two phones that are listed as under 10,000. The problem is finding a handset good enough in this price range to make good of your investment.

That’s why we have taken it upon ourselves to balance out all of the specs as well as the pricing of several different phone models from popular brands in India to make it easier for you to pick out a good phone. At the end, we have narrowed it down to these five handsets under Rs. 10,000 that you must definitely look through if you’re looking for a new phone.

Samsung Galaxy M30 - Rs. 9,999

The quality of Samsung rivals that of Apple. The South Korean-based smartphone giant launched the Galaxy M30 all the way back in February but it’s only recently that the model got itself a spec bump in the Indian market. The phone now features 3GB of RAM and 32GB worth of internal storage in the Indian market and you can buy one right now through either Amazon or Samsung’s official website.

On the technical sheet, the Galaxy M30 has a 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display panel running at Full HD+ (1080x2340) resolution and an aspect ratio of 19.5:9. Under the hood, the phone’s powered by the relatively capable octa-core Exynos 7904 chipset clocking at 1.8 GHz. Of course, you already know the 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal flash storage details.

One of the best things about the phone is the camera suite. Featuring a triple-lens camera system, the primary sensor is 13-megapixel with an aperture of f/1.3. The primary sensor also has Phase Detection Autofocus (PDAF) enabled. A 5-megapixel secondary camera with an aperture of f/2.2. Lastly, the third 5-megapixel sensor is stacked behind an ultra-wide angle lens for an expansive 123-degree field of view for those all-encompassing shots.

Of course, you cannot not mention the front camera for selfie which is a beautiful 16-megapixel sensor.

For power, the 5,000 mAh battery packed within can carry you through a full day of use and the fast charger will ensure that you can top up your phone at moment’s notice. The USB-C port will make it easier for you to not only transfer data but also for fast charging.

In term of software, the phone will be shipped with Android 8.1 Oreo and the Samsung Experience 9.5 overlay package pre-installed.

All other features and common components are available like navigational suite (GPS/GLONASS), dual 4G VoLTE connectivity, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, and Bluetooth 5. The phone also has a 3.5mm headphone jack for all those who still love their wired headphones.

Vivo U10 - Rs. 9,990

The phone’s quite new since it was just launched earlier this week but from what we have seen, it’s a beautiful and capable phone worth checking out. The Vivo U10 launched with a base configuration of 3GB of RAM and 64GB of storage and can be bought through Amazon or Vivo’s official store in India.

The phone has a 6.35-inch HD+ (720x1544) IPS LCD screen panel for all of your gaming needs and of course, watching videos. It’s certainly not the best quality screen you can possibly get out there but it’s not that bad, either, especially for the price. The 89% screen-to-body ratio is also a huge plus for those who want to have the most screen real estate possible.

For processing, the phone is armed with a 2GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 System-on-Chip (SoC). All of the graphical works will be offloaded to the similarly capable Adreno 610 embedded GPU.

Just like the Galaxy M30, the Vivo U10 is equipped with a triple-lens camera array. The primary sensor is 13-megapixel with an aperture of f/2.2. The second ultra-wide lens camera has an 8-megapixel sensor and an f/2.2 aperture. Lastly, the third lens is a 2-megapixel depth sensor (f/2.4) for portrait mode and bokeh. The front-facing camera is a 16-megapixel sensor that can take beautiful, social-media ready selfies.

The Vivo U10 is equipped with a 5,000 mAh battery and is shipped with support for 18W dual-engine fast charging. It can get you through the day and more. Unfortunately, unlike the M30 the U10 still utilises micro-USB instead of USB-C but it’s not entirely a dealbreaker.

For software, when you unpack the phone it will already have Android 9.0 Pie and the standard FunTouch OS 9.1 overlay already installed.

All connectivity features are there, including 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth 5.0, latest Wi-Fi standard, GPS/GLONASS, and better yet, dual SIM support for those with multiple numbers.

Realme 5 - Rs. 9,999

The Realme 5 was introduced side by side with the Realme 5 Pro about a month ago in early September. At its base configuration which includes 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage, the phone will cost you about Rs. 9,999.

The phone boasts a hefty 6.5-inch IPS LCD screen panel with an HD+ (720x1600) resolution. The display’s aspect ratio is 20:9 and the screen-to-body ratio is also relatively impressive at 89%. The top screen is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3+ so no worry there if you were to accidentally drop it from a table.

The phone is operated by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 SoC.

What it lacks in term of screen quality and even processing power when compared to the closest competitor on the pricing front, the Galaxy M30, Realme 5 made up with the impressive camera array. Instead of a triple-lens setup, the Realme 5 has a quad-lens camera suite. The primary wide-angle lens contains a 12-megapixel image sensor with an aperture of f/1.8 and PDAF enabled. The second ultra-wide angle lens is home to an 8-megapixel sensor with f/2.25 aperture. The third macro-lens has an aperture of f/2.4 and a 2-megapixel sensor, lastly, the fourth one is a 2-megapixel depth sensor (f/2.4).

Front-facing camera is a 13-megapixel image sensor that can automatically brush up your visage through machine learning (AI beautification).

Just like the other phones, it has a 5,000 mAh battery that can be charged via micro-USB. The phone runs Android 9.0 Pie out of the box with ColorOS 6.0 overlay package. Connectivity features are also similar to the phones above with dual SIM support.

Lenovo A6 Note - Rs. 7,999

Just like Realme 5, the Lenovo A6 Note was officially released to the public at the start of last month at a pretty reasonable price tag of Rs. 7,999. The phone has a pretty large 6.09-inch HD+ (720x1560) IPS LCD display panel. It is with an aspect ratio of 19.5:9 and an 88% screen-to-body ratio. For processing hardware, it is equipped with MediaTek Helio P22 SoC, 3GB of RAM, and 32GB of internal storage on its base configuration.

Unlike the other phones on this list, we only have a dual-lens setup on this phone. The primary lens contains a 13-megapixel image sensor and a depth-sensing 2-megapixel secondary sensor. The front-facing camera is simply mediocre with a 5-megapixel sensor but it will still pump up some pretty presentable selfies and videos for social media and on-the-go teleconferences under the correct lightings

The other basic details are as followed: You’ll have Android 9.0 Pie out of the box and a 4,000 mAh battery pack inside. There are two colour options for you to choose, black and blue.

Motorola Moto E6s - Rs. 7,999

Motorola hit just the correct sweet spot in the burgeoning Indian market just about two weeks ago in September when it released the Motorola Moto E6s: Just in the middle between the pricing and overall quality. You can buy the phone for about Rs. 7,999 on Flipkart. First of all, there’s a 6.01-inch HD+ (720x1560) display panel with an aspect ratio of 19.5:9 and a rough screen-to-body ratio of about 80.3%. The notch on the top of the screen is shaped like a water drop to ensure that there’s as much screen real estate as possible at the top of the display.

Under the hood, the phone is ran by an octa-core MediaTek Helio P22, a slightly better 4GB of RAM offering in comparison to the other four handsets that are on the list, and the standardised 32GB of internal storage.

There’s nothing worth mentioning about the camera suite with the dual-lens arrangement. The first is a 13-megapixel primary lens at f/2.0 aperture. The second lens contains a 2-megapixel depth sensor. Up front, the phone has a pretty good 8-megapixel sensor for selfies and video calls.

Other basic details include the OS from within the box being Android 9.0 Pie and a mediocre 3,000 mAh (You might have to bring a battery bank with you or have a fast charger at hand in your day for sure). Other than the battery being a relative flaw, connectivity features all exist from navigation, cellular data, Bluetooth 4.2 and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n. There’s a 3.5mm headphone jack and dual SIM support for those with multiple numbers.