Do you have any brand preference or dislike? Please name them.
A: My sister like Xiaomi phones. so preferred brands are Xiaomi, Redmi and Poco.
She also has used Realme phones. But prefers Xiaomi/Redmi because of easy repair.
What is your intended use for this phone (internet, camera, multimedia, mails etc.)?
A: Camera, calls and whatsapp.
Single SIM/ Dual SIM?
A: No preference
New or Used? Online or Offline?
A: New. Don’t mind buying online
Any other requirements?
A: Looking for a good camera phone.
If you have already considered a phone, then please mention the model
She recently ordered the Motorola Edge 60 Fusion 5G after doing some research, but had to cancel it because Flipkart wasn’t delivering — the order was stuck in “shipped” status with no updates.
Looking to buy phone from Amazon or offline store.
Simple : Pixel 8a if you can spend 5k more. 35k with hdfc card discount.
Can even go with pixel 7a at 28k. Although released two years ago, still a good phone for casual users. Android updates up to 2028.
But repairs and service is not good in India.
My other pick would be Samsung A55 (or A56 during sales). Might not have the best camera, but overall decent secure phone, with updates for good number of years.
Or even Samsung S24FE during sales (23 FE if budget is tight and if you can get your hands on it). Very good camera, better than even A series and decent phone overall.
Since she prefers Xiaomi/Redmi for repair. You can try the Redmi Note 13 Pro or Redmi Note 13 Pro+.
I prefer the Snapdragon variant(Redmi Note 13 Pro) because SD offers better image processing, more often than not at the same price point as its Dimensity counterpart.
Ignore Xiaomi phones, thier UI is inferior to competition & even its battery optimisation is not good it seems (check GSMArena).
Samsung has the lowest repair costs among the major brands but most of Samsung phones are not worth buying at current prices. S24FE can be considered at 35k. It has Exynos but much better than older Exynos or even the Tensor of Pixel in terms of performance & power efficiency.
Things are still smooth on my 8GB S20FE bought three years back.
Price was 37k though
No more OS Updates but security is being updated and on Apr '25. Samsungs software updates have been flawless. Just ensure phone is cool say 30 degree or below before applying updates. Temperature can rise a good eight degrees if not more when applying the update
FE from S21 on gets 5yr OS support
8GB RAM is fine but 128GB without expandable memory will be tight.
Better to go for the 256GB model which will increase the price 5k more.
Otherwise wait for the next sale and see if the price drops