TOP 10 Best Camera Phones Under 10000 in India July 2019

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Realme was a sub-brand of the very famous Shenzhen-based Chinese brand OPPO until 2018 when it separated to become an independent company. Realme focusses on mainly budget segment phones priced between 7k to 15K price segment. With offerings from Xiaomi and Samsung at this price point will the Realme 3 be able to keep up with the competition? Or will it be just another phone brand trying to survive in the ocean of budget smartphones?

Read on to find out as we list what’s good, average and bad in this brief review of the Realme 3.

Now when you first unbox the case of the Realme 3 you are pleasantly greeted with the phone followed by a 10W fast charger, a micro USB cable, and a clear film TPU case. Its good to see that Realme is providing a case right out of the box until you purchase a new one. Well, when you hear the word micro USB you might be thinking that its outdated right? But the fact is that this is a sub 11K phone and we can’t really complain much in this price range. An exception comes from Redmi Note 7 which impressively offers fast charging for a sub 10k smartphone.

Coming to the design first, the Realme 3 has a plastic body but a new gradient finish design giving it a much expensive look than it actually is. The fingerprint scanner sits behind the phone, although mention needs to be made of its slightly higher placement than the usual. Other design features include the vertical dual camera and a single LED flash set up at the leftmost corner. The primary camera comes with this yellow paint job around the rim of the camera that Realme calls the ‘Real Ring’.

Coming to the front gate, we have a large 1520 X 720 pixels 6.22-inch HD+ teardrop notch display giving it an 88.3 percent screen to body ratio. However, the phone comes with a considerable chin at the bottom. The display is 720p instead of 1080p and it is a bummer considering again it's previous offering the Realme U1 have 1080p displays. The quality of the display is however good for a 720p one. Again, what disappointing is the chin on the Realme 3 is actually larger than the company’s previous offering which is the Realme U1. The display is protected by gorilla glass 3 and has a max brightness of 450nits which is decent for this price point, though other manufacturers have moved to Gorilla Glass 5 and 6.

Coming to the camera front the Realme 3 houses a 13MP f1.8 primary sensor and a 2MP depth sensor for portrait shots. It is to be noted that this is the same setup seen in the previous Realme U1 which is not absolutely great in the price range but doesn’t disappoint the users either. The selfie camera is a 13MP f2.0 sensor which also comes equipped with face unlock. This, however, is again a downgrade from the Realme U1's 25MP selfie shooter. The camera captures decent images with good contrast and also supports AI capabilities to improve the images. Overall considering the phone priced at under 9000, the phone offers decent features and quality.  One fact about the camera is the rear camera is that the video recording capability is locked down to only 1080p despite the processor Helio P70 has 4K recording capability.

Staying on the processor front as mentioned earlier the Helio P70 from MediaTek is the animal running the show on this phone. The P70 is based on the 12nm manufacturing process and is an extremely capable processor as its almost on par with the Snapdragon 660 which is actually a good thing considering the phones lower price point. Even while gaming the Mali-G72 holds up to itself and games like PUBG mobile will surely play just fine on medium settings. Realme 3 AnTuTu score comes out at 1,37,901 which again confirms a strong performance.

The Realme 3 unlike some of its competition offers the best of both the world when it comes to SIM and Memory card slot. It provides both of them 2 SIM card slot and a separate Memory card slot which is expandable to a whopping 256GB. Other features include headphone jack at the bottom. Yes, we see the headphone jack as a feature as phone prices 5 times its own are removing it. Flanked beside the headphone jack are not 1 bit 2 microphone the micro USB cable and the speaker grill.

When compared to other phones in this price range that usually come with a Snapdragon 636, the P70 just crushes the competition. However, when compared with the Snapdragon 660 it falls slightly behind. So, performance wise the Realme 3 surely delivers.

Finally coming to the battery backup. The battery on the Realme 3 is a massive 4230 mAh. This is a major upgrade compared to the companies last offering which is the Realme U1. Combined with the 12nm P70 and a lower resolution 720p display, the phone delivers around 1.5 days of backup.

For the software, the Realme 3 comes with the latest Color OS 6.0 based on Android 9 Pie which comes with app drawer and other useful features. There are some bloatware apps that come installed on this phone. Also, there is no IP rating so you have to protect your phone from water and dust unlike Note 7 which offers splash-proof protection. 

Now, we have been talking about the price point of the Realme 3 for a long time and here are the variants that are gonna be made available to the end users. The Rs  8999 variant will get you 3GB RAM and the 32GB of internal storage. While the Rs 10999 variant will get you 4GB RAM and 64GB storage.

So, to sum everything up. The Realme 3, doesn’t really improve from its predecessor but makes some noteworthy change on the battery and processor department. It is true that the display is not all that great and the camera is also slightly above average but the 4230 mAh battery and the Helio P70 makes up for the other compromises.

According to us the best value for money is the base variant at rupees 8999 because at this price a P70 and a 4230 mAh battery is actually a great deal. So if the camera and display is not the topmost priority and performance and battery life is all that you want to go for this phone. At this price point, the phone faces stiff competition from Redmi Note 7 and Asus Zenfone Max M2

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Redmi smartphones have been feeling the competitive pressure from the likes of Realme 2 Pro, Samsung M series. Redmi Note 6 Pro did not see much updates apart from camera and got a subdued response, not something Xiaomi is used to. Here we go through the Redmi Note 7 and bring out its top features, specifications and the pricing. Alongside, Redmi Note 7, Xiaomi has also launched the much awaited Redmi Note 7 Pro.

Redmi Note 7 comes with a 6.3 inch IPS display with a Full HD plus resolution. There is a dot notch on the top which holds the selfie camera and the phone has an aspect ratio of 19.5:9. The display looks perfectly bright and has punchier colors. It is not an AMOLED display but of great standard that your experience will not fall short while watching movies or playing games. The back of the phone is built of glass and has a gradient color look which we have seen in the phones from Honor similar to the Honor 10 Lite. It is the first time Redmi has introduced glass back in the budget segment phones. Previous Redmi Note series phones were not used to focus on looks but with Note 7, Xiaomi has also looked to strengthen this area as well.

The phone comes with the Gorilla Glass 5 on both the front and back and the build quality is very strong. Xiaomi has been teasing the phone in many of its videos regarding its durability. The phone has decent build quality but not the best as it failed in the bend test. There is a transparent case bundled in the box so you can use it to further add protection to it.

For the processor, Xiaomi has finally decided to move ahead from the Snapdragon 636 for which they were heavily trolled on the social media. The Redmi Note 7 features the Snapdragon 660 processor and works very smooth. On the AnTuTu benchmark, Note 7 scores around 1,44,840 which is a good score for a phone at this price. Redmi Note 7 has been launched in 2 variants, 3 GB RAM with 32 GB storage and 4 GB with 64 GB storage. There is a hybrid sim slot to use it as a dual sim phone or expand the storage up to 256 GB, something which Xiaomi might want to update in future phones by bringing a dedicated storage space with dual sim support.

Performance wise, the phone works like a charm and we did not find any lag or heating issues even with extended usage. Redmi has been marketing the phone with the keyword “Next level” and we feel the phone truly delivers on the expectation. It is not a new chip in the market but powerful enough to support true multitasking. We have seen phones like Asus Zenfone Max 2 Pro and other being launched with the same and they have fared well even after months of usage but the previous phones used to work on the underclocked processor hence they did not get the true performance. Redmi Note 7 brings in the proper true variant of Snapdragon 660 which is not underclocked.

Now coming to the camera review of this the Note 7 review. Here Note 7 has a dual rear camera with 12 MP f/2.2 sensor and a 5 MP f/2.4 secondary sensor. We found the camera shots were decent with a good level of details. The color accuracy also looked good in most of the scenario. The portrait shots work well and are able to perfectly blur the background in most of the scenario to pop out the subject but there were some scenarios where some objects did not get blur. These small improvements can be made anytime with the software upgrades as the portrait works fine in most of the shots.

Note 7 and Note 7 Pro also introduces a Night Mode for low light images. We observed that this mode does a decent job by clicking a near to accurate pictures. The shots had limited noise and the lampshades, the sky seems to be captured properly with proper details of the surrounding.  The camera also supports HDR, short video, AI features and filters as part of other features of the camera and all of them to deliver on the expectations. The 4K video recording is disabled in the phone which was anyway above expectation from a budget segment smartphone.

For the selfie shots, Note 7 has a 13 MP sensor and supports HDR and AI mode. The selfie images are crisp with a good level of details. The portrait shots also blur decently well. Overall, the selfie camera has a lower Megapixel sensor from the Redmi Note 6 Pro 20 MP but the performance is slightly better. Overall the cameras are decent for the price range of 10k. If you are looking for a camera, then you should go for Redmi Note 7 Pro which comes with 48 MP Sony IMX568 sensor.

From the software perspective, the phone runs on MIUI 10 which is based on the Android Pie and brings in a lot of useful software features but the MIUI bloatware somewhat kills the fun. Depending on how used to you are to the MI apps and bloatware, you may feel comfortable with the software.

The battery has a capacity of 4000 mAh which easily lasts for more than a day in medium usage and at least a day with heavy usage. Though the battery capacity remains the same, the phone weight has gone a little up to 186 grams. On the other hand, Redmi has also taken the fight to next level by introducing a Type C port for charging which the industry experts have been waiting for a long time. The phone supports fast charging but the bundled charger is a 10 W charger so you will have to buy a fast charger to use the quick charge support

Redmi has kept the 3.5 mm headphone jack alive, there is also an IR blaster available to use your phone as a remote for home appliances. There is a notification LED available at the bottom. There is no IP rating as such but Redmi claims that the phone is splash proof but we have not tested it yet. For unlocking, this phone has a fingerprint sensor on the back and also supports face unlocking using the front camera and both the method work super fast and accurate.

Coming to the pricing, Redmi variants look to keep the whole budget segment engaged and happy. The 3GB-32GB variants costs Rs 9,999, 4GB-64GB costs 11,999 . Depending on your usage and budget, you can look to choose any of the above variants.

Overall the smartphone does a great job and we can say excellent given the price range of 10000 to 12000. The looks are gorgeous, the processor and the camera performance sees a decent upside. Introduction of Type C and fast charging are like icing on the cake. 

In comparison to the Redmi Note 7 vs Redmi Note 7 Pro, the major differences are in the processor and the camera performance. The looks, build quality, battery and charging remains the same. Xiaomi is currently fully focused to get the Redmi Note 7 rolling well and with such powerful specifications and features, we are sure Redmi is going to get a good reward from its user base

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We don't remember the last time we recommended a Samsung phone under 10000 to our users. Samsung is trying to change that and the Samsung Galaxy M10 and M20 look like a step in that direction. The Samsung Galaxy M10 is priced at around 8000 to 9000 Rs. and comes with a fresh design and a large 6.22-inch Infinity V display. Infinity V is just a fancy name for the small notch displays that we are seeing these days.

The front camera is placed inside the notch and the earpiece is above the notch. The bezels all around are thin but the chin does take a good amount of space at the bottom. The display resolution is just HD 720p so it is not that sharp. Color accuracy isn't great either. The phone has a plastic unibody design with curved edges. The phone feels light because of the plastic but it doesn't feel cheap. We haven't done a bend test so we don't know how strong it is. Overall, this is the best-looking smartphone under 10000 from Samsung.

There is no fingerprint sensor on the phone so face lock or pin lock are the only ways to make your phone secure. The face unlock is slow and takes 2-3 seconds sometimes which is irritating. Most people will end up using pin lock because of that. The battery inside the phone is 3400 mAh and the charger that comes with the phone is 5V 1A charger. The battery is not big but because of low-resolution display and efficient processor, the battery backup is great. The phone will last for a day easily with medium to heavy usage. The charging is slow because of the 1A charger. It takes more than 3 hours to fully charge the device from 0 to 100%.

The Samsung M10 is powered by Exynos 7870 chipset which first came out in 2016. It not a powerful chipset and cannot compete with Snapdragon 625 or 450. There are 2 variants of M10: 2GB RAM and 16GB storage and 3GB RAM and 32GB storage. Because of the average processor, the multitasking isn't smooth and you will see some lag even on the 3GB RAM variant. Samsung M10 is not suitable for games like PUBG. For normal users who need a phone for social media apps and calling, Samsung M10 is a good device.

The Samsung M10 runs on Samsungs Experience UI which is a skin based on Android 8.1 Oreo. There is a good amount of bloatware. The UI is clean and easy to use though. The performance of M10 on benchmarks is average as well. It scores less than 50000 on Antutu benchmarks. 

On the camera side, we have a surprise from Samsung. The rear camera is a dual setup of 13MP (f/1.9) + 5MP (f/2.2 ultra-wide). While most companies just throw in a useless 2MP depth sensor as a secondary camera, Samsung has added an ultra wide angle lens which can be very useful. The primary sensor is also a good one and has an f/1.9 aperture which helps in low light shots. The camera on the front is a 5MP f/2.0 sensor. Both front and rear camera performance are decent for an under 10000 smartphone. The pictures taken in daylight look nice with good amount of details. The portrait mode pictures also look decent. 

The phone comes with a headphone jack and a triple slot sim tray so you can use 2 VOLTE sims with a MicroSD card. Dedicated sim slot is a really good option when you are buying phones with 16GB or 32GB of storage. 

Overall, Samsung M10 is a good value for money smartphone. Finally, Samsung has launched a smartphone which we can recommend to our users. The multitasking and gaming aren't great though. So if your usage is social media apps, taking pictures, watching videos and calling, Samsung M10 is a good phone under 10000. It is available in Blue and Black color. The blue color is our favorite color of M10 and go for the 3GB 32GB storage as the price difference is just Rs. 1000. If you need more power then Realme 2 and Redmi Y2 are good options at a similar price.

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Asus Zenfone Max M2 is an economical variant of the Max M2 Pro which comes with a less powerful processor and an HD+ Plus display compared to Full HD+ on the M2 Pro with other things remaining more or less the same.

This Max M2 comes with a notch type 6.26 HD+ display which has good brightness and sharpness level. The notch size on this phone is slightly bigger than compared to the M2 Pro. Also, there is no Gorilla glass on this phone which is expected in the price point so you need to be extra cautious that you do not drop it. On the build quality side, the phone looks solid and the back of the phone is metallic which feels sturdy in hand.

On the processor side, this Max M2 comes with a relatively new Qualcomm Snapdragon 632 which was seen on the only phone, Honor 8C. The Antutu benchmark scores come around 1,05,000 which is equivalent to the Samsung M20 phone and is a good score for sub 10k phone. The performance gets support from 4 GB RAM and 64 GB internal memory. It supports a dedicated SD card slot to expand the memory up to 2 TB which is a very much needed feature as the phone is now increasingly used for clicking/storing photos videos and other data. There is also a 3 GB 32 GB variant available for a price on under 10k.

In our camera review, we found this phone clicks good pictures which given the price point are best. In terms of specifications, the sensors are similar to the Pro version. On the rear camera, there is a 13MP primary sensor and a 2 MP dedicated depth sensor and an 8 MP sensor for front camera selfies. The photos capture a lot of details with very apt quality, sharpness and color reproduction. However, the low light camera clicks and video struggled with noise and in capturing all the details. The camera app also takes a bit of time while focussing on the objects.

The portrait shots also produce attractive images with proper edge detection/bokeh effect most of the time unless there is a complex object in the background. The video recording is available in 4K (Ultra HD) resolution but stabilization is not available in 4K. You can enable stabilization for video recording under the 1080p resolution.

Coming to the gaming performance, the new Snapdragon 632 fares well is most of the scenario. The low to medium end games work perfectly fine without any issues however the high-end games do suffer some lag because of the processor performance, especially in games like PUBG which require you to focus on enemies takes some time delay compared to phones with the high-end processor.  Overall, the gaming performance is good in day to day life with very minor heating observed during our review. The full-screen games mask the notch completely with no option to enable it for now. Asus might change this with a software update in the future.

This Max M2 like the Max M2 Pro and Max M1 Pro comes with stock android with minimum bloatware apps like Facebook, Instagram etc which you might anyways need. The phone has been launched with Android Oreo and is supposed to get the Android Pie update. The phone supports dual VoLTE so if your network provider has VoLTE in your area, then you can use it on both the sim.  There are fingerprint and face unlocking mechanism available and both are fast and accurate and much improved from the previous Asus phones. There is no IP rating on this phone so keep it safe from water and dust and they can damage the phone.

For the battery backup, Asus has provided a 4000 mAh battery which gives a backup of around 1 complete day with heavy usage and around 1.5 days for medium to low usage. There is a 10W charger bundled in the box which takes around 120 minutes for complete charging and the phone does not support fast charging. Despite a big battery, the phone only weighs 160gm and feels light in hand. In terms of accessories, there is a TPU case bundled in the box but no earphones.

If you are looking for a complete phone and have a budget of around 10000, then you can look to choose this phone as it offers a solid quality, decent processor and a good battery backup. You can also read about the Samsung M10 if you do not need a powerful processor but a phone with good looks. Honor 8C also offer similar specification and comes in a similar price range.

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Realme U1 is a selfie-centric smartphone and is priced in the 10000 to 15000 price segment. The phone is made of polycarbonate and feels light. The back looks like glass but it is not. It does have a reflective design which looks really nice. Blue is our favorite color here. The phone feels nice in hand. The bezels are small so even with 6.3-inch display size, the phone is not too big. It comes with a clear silicon case in the box which is useful if you tend to drop the phone.

The display on the front is a 6.3 inch LCD panel with a screen to body ratio of over 90%. The bezels are really thin and the notch is waterdrop notch which only takes a fraction of space compared to usual rectangular notches that we have seen till now. The resolution of the display is Full HD Plus. It is a good panel with accurate colors and good viewing angles. Visibility under direct sunlight isn't great though. 

For audio, there is a speaker on the bottom and it sounds nice and is loud as well. It is impressive. The headphone jack is also at the bottom with the MicroUSB charging port. The sound via the headphone jack is average and nothing special. The sim tray has 3 slots so you can put 2 sim cards and 1 MicroSD card at the same time. Realme U1 comes in 2 variants: 3GB 32GB and 4GB 64GB, if you are going with the base variant, you can slide in a MicroSD card anytime to increase the storage. 

The Realme U1 comes with a fingerprint sensor on the back and there is face unlock available as well. Both of these methods are quick to unlock the phone, the fingerprint sensor is more secure though. 

Realme U1 is powered by the MediaTek P70 chipset which is very similar to the P60 and has a bit higher clock speeds. The performance boost isn't great though. P60 was a good performer and so is P70, it is powerful enough to handle most games and apps without any lags. On benchmarks, it beats chips like Snapdragon 660 and scores around 150000 on Antutu benchmarks. You won't notice any throttling or overheating even while playing heavy games.

The battery on the U1 is 3500 mAh which is same as Realme 2 Pro battery. The battery backup is decent. With medium usage, it will last for a day. With low usage, you might get it running for around 1.5 days. The phone comes with 5V 2A charger and charges the phone fully in around 2 hours. In 30 minutes, you can get the phone from 0% to 30%.

The Realme U1 runs on ColorOS which is a heavily customized skin based on Android 8.1. There is plenty of useful feature and plenty of useless apps as well. If you have used Oppo, Vivo, Redmi phones before, you won't mind the interface. If you are coming from stock Android, there will be a learning curve. 

Now let's talk about the camera, which is the USP of this device. The rear camera is 13MP+2MP setup which is same as Realme 2. There's is nothing special here. The 13MP is a color sensor and 2MP is a depth sensor. It takes decent photos in outdoor good lighting conditions and is average indoor. The front camera is a 25MP sensor which takes excellent pictures. The front camera performs really well, the colors look good, dynamic range is decent and selfies look great overall. It does beautify your face a bit but that's what most customers want and are using so we can't complain. Video recording is limited to 1080p at 30FPS. The videos look good with plenty of details, good colors and audio recording is decent as well.

Overall, Realme U1 is a well-balanced device and is a great phone for selfie lovers. The design is nice, processor is powerful, rear camera is average but front camera is great and battery backup is decent as well. We think it offers good value for money and will be one of the bestsellers in the under 15000 segment in India.

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Honor has been very aggressive in the under 20000 smartphone range. They have launched Honor 9 Lite, Honor 7X, Honor 9i which have received great response from the users. Honor is now launching Honor 9N, which is a rebranded Honor 9i(2018) launched in China. It comes with a notch display and beautiful design and is a good smartphone under 15000. Let us look at the reviews, specifications and features of this beautiful phone. 

Honor 9N comes with a 5.84-inch notch display with a Full HD Plus resolution of 1080 x 2280 pixels. The display is a full view display having an aspect ratio of 19:9. In terms of design, it has a glass design and looks similar to the one seen Honor 9 Lite. The front has a notch and the back has a horizontal dual camera setup with a LED flash at the top and a fingerprint sensor. Honor has launched Honor 9N with a tagline of #ExtraOrdinaryBeauty and the design and looks truly upholds the statement. It is lightweight and easy to hold and operate with one hand.

On the performance side, Honor has once again used the in-house Kirin 659 processor which we have seen in all the midrange phones starting from Honor 9 Lite, Honor 9i (2017) and the Honor 7X. This smartphone has 3 GB of RAM with 32 GB of internal storage. We have seen the similar configuration in all the Honor phones in this price range and though Kirin 659 is not a powerhouse as Snapdragon 636 seen in Redmi Note 5 Pro but does handle multitasking with ease and one can easily go through all the daily tasks without any difficulty. But that Kirin 659 at the pricing of under 15000 does not raise the bar in the performance side when compared to the likes to Note 5 Pro, Asus Zenfone Max or the Mi A2 which has just launched. Honor 9N scores around 75000 on the Antutu Benchmark.

Coming to the camera, Honor 9N supports a dual rear camera setup with 13MP as the primary sensor and 2MP sensor as the secondary sensor with Dual tone LED flash and autofocus. The camera works fine with clear and crisp shots and good colour reproduction. The camera also supports face detection, portrait (bokeh) mode and HDR mode. The front camera is a 16MP shooter which is located inside the front notch and as expected clicks beautiful pictures and also supports portrait shots via software processing.

Honor 9N runs on EMUI 8.1 which is a custom skin based on the Android 8.1 Oreo and works smooth. They are some bloatware but Honor has well refined the EMUI over the years. There is a hybrid micro SD card slot to expand the memory up to 256 GB. Honor 9N supports both fingerprint and face unlocking mechanism and both of the methods work accurately and swiftly. Honor 9N does not carry any IP rating so keep it safe from the dust and water.  It has a battery rated at 3000 mAh which can keep the phone powered up for a day. You would need to charge it after a full day usage. 

Honor 9N though has been launched as the rebranded version Honor 9i (2018) but in actual it is a more beautiful version of all the Honor midrange phones. It has a stunning looking notch and is Honor's first phone under 15000 with a notch. The dazzling looks are very attractive and if you are looking to buy a phone under 15000 with a notch display, Honor 9N has to be your top choice. If you are not much concerned with the high-end gaming or heavy usage, this phone would work through easily.

The 3GB 32GB variant is priced at Rs. 11999 and the 4GB 64GB variant is priced at Rs. 13999. Honor has added a 4GB 128GB variant as well which will cost you 17999. We think the middle variant 4GB 64B provides the best value for money.

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Xiaomi has come up with another phone in the under 10000-15000 segment. The Redmi Y1 which was launched last year as a selfie smartphone has received some significant upgrades in terms of internal hardware, cameras, and display. Let's take a look at the brief review of Redmi Y2.

Redmi Y2 comes with a 5.99-inch display of 18:9 aspect ratio and HD+ resolution. The display is bright and vivid with good color reproduction and viewing angles. The resolution is not Full HD so that's a bit disappointing but it is not a deal breaker. The bezel-less on the top and bottom have reduced so the overall size of the phone is similar to other 5.5 inches phones. The build quality of Redmi Y1 wasn't that great but Xiaomi has done a good job with Redmi Y2. The device feels good in the hand. The back is metal so it is a bit slippery but you do get a free transparent case in the box. It comes in 3 colors: Grey, Gold and Rose Gold. Our favorite color is Rose gold. 

Inside the Redmi Y2, we have the same Snapdragon 625 chipset which we have seen on Redmi Note 4 and Redmi Note 5. Snapdragon 625 is a decent performer and very power efficient chipset so we don't have any complaints. The phone is available in 2 variants: 3GB RAM-32GB Storage and 4GB RAM-64GB Storage. If you are a heavy user and use a lot of apps and games then go for the 4GB-64GB variant. If your use only camera, social media apps etc then 3GB variant should be fine. The overall performance of the device is good and you won't face any lag during the day to day usage. Redmi Y2 scores around 70000 on Antutu benchmarks which is similar to Antutu score of other Snapdragon 625 devices like Redmi Note 5 and Mi A1.

Let's talk about camera now. Redmi Y2 is a camera-centric smartphone and have received a good upgrade in the camera department. There is a 12MP+5MP dual camera on the back. The camera is placed vertically just like it was on the Redmi Note 5 Pro. The 12MP camera is a color sensor and 5MP camera is a depth sensor which helps to take portrait mode shots with depth effect. The rear camera performance is good in both daylight and low light conditions. The pixel size is 1.25um which helps to improve the low light performance. Edge detection in portrait mode is good as well.

The selfie camera on the Redmi Y2 is a 16MP sensor with a front flash. The front flash is very useful in low light conditions. The front camera also has portrait mode and can take pictures with depth effect. In our initial tests, the front camera performance was good. Edge detection wasn't that great and you might see your hair getting blurred in some of the shots. The front camera has features like AI beauty which removes blemishes and makes you look beautiful. The front camera is also used for face unlock which is not that quick but still, performance is decent. If you don't like face unlock then there is a fingerprint sensor on the back of the device. It is safe to say that Redmi Y2 is the best budget camera smartphone available in India under Rs. 10000.

Redmi Y2 comes with MIUI 9.5 out of the box which is a custom skin based on Android 8.1. We don't really like MIUI because it comes with a lot of bloatware and the UI isn't great either but you can change that with a launcher. If you like to use dual apps, second space etc then MIUI is great for you.

The battery inside the Redmi Y2 is 3080 mAh and would last for a day on single charge. It would have been great if Xiaomi has gone with a 4000 mAh battery like on Note 5 and Note 5 Pro. The charger inside the box is 5V, 2 Amps charger which will charge the device in around 2 hours. 

It is a dual sim device and Xiaomi has added a dedicated MicroSD slot this time which is great. If 32GB or 64GB is not enough for you, you can slide in a MicroSD card to increase the storage by up to 128GB. Redmi Y2 is not waterproof or dustproof and doesn't have any IP rating so keep it away from water and mud. 

The Redmi Y2 has been priced at 9999 for the 3GB-32GB variant and 12999 for 4GB-64GB variant. It is an Amazon India exclusive device. We think pricing is decent and you are getting good value for money. The price of the lower variant is same as Redmi Note 5. Redmi Y2 has better cameras and Redmi Note 5 has better battery and display. So go for Y2 is you are going to use the camera a lot. If you don't use the camera much then Note 5 or Realme 1 is a better option.

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Brief Review:

Huawei has been on a smartphone launch spree lately and this time around, It is looking to reinforce the segment where most of Its revenue comes from In India, Honor 7C is latest in line of sub-₹ 10k smartphones in India, packing some hefty features for the price.

Honor 7A  and Honor 7C feel absolutely similar except this one is a little bigger with a 5.99-inch IPS LCD panel with a full 18:9 aspect ratio at a resolution of 720 x 1440 pixels which turns out the pixel density to be a measly ~269 PPI. Since It is 2018 and everything is about putting more display estate and ditching bezels, low cost Androids are not missing the trend either. There are some bezels on the sides which are not that noticeable but the ones at top and bottom are. The smartphone is not much thick at just 7.8mm and weighs 164grams which is not at all heavy given Its a smartphone with a 6-inch display. The backplate is made of aluminum accompanied by plastic antenna bands on top and bottom. We are not very impressed with the construction and materials used here, It feels solid enough though. Honor 7C is overall a well-built phone with some sacrifices as It occurs with every on-budget device. 

So, as the spec sheet says, Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 runs the show on Honor 7C which is definitely an upgrade over Snapdragon 430 on Honor 7A. Snapdragon 450 has an octa-core CPU packed of 8 Cortex-A53s clocked at 1.8GHz. Adreno 508 serves as GPU, coupled with 3GB of RAM. This places Honor 7C in exactly the same leagues as the Xiaomi Redmi 5 and the device is an impressive budget performer. The multitasking is smooth. Presence of 3GB of RAM makes things easier and a tad smoother.

General performance is fluid and we don’t have any beef with the smartphone here. Adreno 508 is quite capable when it comes to gaming and can take almost all titles on the Play Store head on. It struggles a bit heavy gaming but It still plays most games with absolutely no lag. For everyday tasks, the smartphone is powerful enough but if you are a power user you might need to dial your expectations down. Huawei has done to give the most value for money in form of Honor 7C.

Dual cameras are the new mainstream definition of smartphone camera and It's taking over the scene quite fast, we appreciate Huawei making the game intense by putting dual sensor 13 MP + 2 MP, f/2.2, with LED flash at the back and an 8 MP, f/2.0 sensor with a soft LED flash at the front for selfies. The second camera at the back doesn’t do a lot, except capturing the depth information for making those bokeh shots possible. While taking the camera out for a spin, we found that It is just a notch better than other budget cameras but the performance isn’t all that stupefying. It takes some decent shots in outdoor lighting with very feeble dynamic range, the camera struggles without a shy in low-light conditions and the indoor lighting doesn’t work well as well. The portrait mode works justifiably good but isn’t the best we’ve seen in the range. Overall, the camera performance is quite satisfactory with nothing to blow our minds. And since Its a budget Android, no one is expecting exceptional camera prowess here. 

The story is similar with front selfie camera as well and it takes nice shots in outdoor well-lit conditions and performance is average indoors. The front camera works well for the Face Unlock feature and phone usually unlocks in around 0.3-0.5 seconds.

Honor 7C runs on Android Oreo 8.0 out of the box with EMUI 8 on top. EMUI is Huawei custom overlay on top of Android which has come a long way from being annoying and gimmicky to being a more sophisticated, snappy and polished skin. We don’t like skins, we are stock Android people but if one has to go with skins, I definitely count EMUI as one of the finest ones out there. It is still feature loaded with some of them quite appreciated like Ride mode for bikers, gaming mode to avoid notifications, Huawei Histen for enhancing audio quality.

Huawei has shipped Honor 7C with 3000mAh battery. It gets about a day’s worth of battery life on normal use but you would need to put it on charge before that if you are a heavy user. There is a MicroUSB port for charging at the bottom, and you shouldn’t be expecting a USB-C here. The charging isn’t a sweet dream as there is no fast charging and the smartphone takes nearly 2.5 hours to fully charge.

Snapdragon 450 is a decent performer and Honor 7C scores around 65000 on Antutu benchmark. The device has a sturdy build but is not covered with any IP rating so keep It way from liquids and dust at all times.

Honor 7C has been priced at ₹ 9,999 in India for the model with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage. The other variant comes with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage, priced at ₹ 11,999. The Honor 7C is available exclusively on Amazon.in. Other than that, customers can also get the smartphone at Honor India's own online store.

So, that’s all we have about Honor 7C at the moment, the device is almost a big brother to Honor 7A and is one of the most budget complete smartphones in the segment which is quite volatile. Huawei has been active in keeping their lineup up to date with the latest trends most of them are seen here - the tall, 18:9 display, dual cameras, face unlock and more. Honor 7C is right on the money, we believe the pricing could have been a bit more aggressive to hurt the likes of Xiaomi but the ones who are looking beyond Xiaomi in the budget range, Huawei is offering some greatness.

See review, specs, pros cons and covers of Honor 7C

Brief Review:

Honor 9 Lite is the latest smartphone in India from Huawei/Honor in the budget segment of around Rs. 10000-15000. Before this, we have seen 3 launches from Honor in last 4 months. The first one was Honor 9i, the second was Honor 7X and third was Honor View 10. We liked all those devices, now let's take a look at Honor 9 Lite.

Honor 9 Lite looks stunning. The phone is covered with glass on the front and back and has a very glossy finish. Yes, it is prone to fingerprints but when it is clean, it looks gorgeous. I don't remember the last time we saw a budget device that was this beautiful. If you are wondering which color is the best then my first choice would be Blue, then grey and then black. This is just a personal preference. Go with the color you like most.

The build of the phone is solid and it feels good in the hand. We have a 5.65-inch full view display with Full HD+ resolution. The display is large but the phone isn't because of the smaller bezels. You won't face any issues with one hand usage. The phone is slippery because of glass design so that might be a problem. 

The aspect ratio of the display is 18:9 which is something we are seeing in all latest smartphones. The display is covered with 2.5D glass. Once again, we don't know whether there is tempered gorilla glass or not. Looking at Honor's past record, we think it is not a gorilla glass so getting a tempered glass for your Honor 9 Lite would be a good idea.

The Honor 9 Lite comes powered by 2.36 GHz Octa-Core Kirin 659 processor, which is a powerful processor capable of handling all the normal multitasking swiftly. We have seen the same chipset on the recently launched Honor 7X and Honor 9i. The chipset performs well and is efficient as well so we don't have any complaints.On Antutu benchmarks you will see a score of around 62000.

The multitasking Honor 9 Lite assisted by 3 or 4GB of RAM depending on which variant you buy. It comes with 32/64 GB of internal memory. Plus there is a MicroSD card slot which can be used to increase the storage by up to 256GB. The slot is hybrid so you can either use 2 sims cards or 1 sim card and a MicroSD card. We hate the concept of the hybrid slot because it limits the functionality of the device.

The USP of the device is the camera setup. Honor 9 Lite has a dual rear camera and dual front camera, The rear camera is a 13MP + 2MP dual camera while the front camera is a 13MP + 2MP dual camera. the dual camera setup allows additional effects to be added to the photos clicked. Both camera setups have an RGB camera sensor and a monochrome camera sensor. Details are captured from both cameras to make images sharper. Plus, they help to give a bokeh/depth effect to your pictures also known as portrait mode. We have seen the same camera setup before on Honor 7X and 9i and the performance are same. The pictures are nice in outdoor lighting. The bokeh effect also looks good in pictures from both front and rear cameras. The camera performance under low light conditions is average which is expected from a smartphone in this price range. Overall, we think the camera performance is decent and you won't be disappointed.

Honor 9 Lite also supports the feature as seen in other Honor phones where the image background can be blurred even after clicking the image. This feature is really good as you can blur the background to your liking after taking the picture. 

For security, the back of the phone supports an active fingerprint sensor on the back of the device. The fingerprint sensor is fast and responsive and you are not going to face any issues with it.

The Honor 9 Lite runs EMUI 8 which is a skin based on Android 8 Oreo. EMUI has some useful customizations like drawing an S for a long screenshot to capture an entire web page, tap twice with one finger for a screenshot, and tap twice with two fingers for screen recording. These small features can be very useful. There is some bloatware on the device but those apps can be uninstalled.

The handset supports 3000mAH battery which should be sufficient for more than a day for normal usage. It comes with a 5V 2Amp charger and there is some kind of fast charging so you can expect your device to charge from 0 to 100% in around 2 hours.

Honor 9 Lite is not waterproof or dustproof so there is no IP rating for this device. Keeping it away from water and dust would be a good idea.

Honor 9 Lite comes in 2 variants: 3GB-32GB and 4GB-64GB priced at 10999 and 14999 respectively. It will be available on Flipkart from 21st Jan.

Overall, Honor 9 Lite looks like a great looking budget device with decent overall performance and nice dual cameras on both sides. If you like to take selfies then you should consider this device. Even if you do not click selfies, the premium build, beautiful display, lag-free performance makes it a great option in this price range.

This was a brief overview of Honor 9 Lite. We have a done a detailed review as well. Check out the detailed review of Honor 9 Lite.

Other options in this range include Mi A1 and Moto G5S Plus. We think Honor 9 Lite is a better option because of better processor, better and larger display and dual front camera which is not there in other devices.

See review, specs, pros cons and covers of Honor 9 Lite

User Reviews of Honor 9 Lite:

If you would like to read the reviews given by customers who bought this device then check out the links below

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