25-30k Good, versatile camera and not big or heavy

[sid41299]

General :​

Budget -​

What is your budget? Mention Locality/Currency & Price Range.​

INR ~25k.

New or Used? Online or in-store?​

New. Online.

​

Brand -​

Do you have any brand preference or dislikes? Please name them.​

Preferably Samsung. Don't want a Chinese phone

Usage -​

What is your intended use?​

Casual - Calls, texts & Browsing and Camera focused

What is your expected battery backup?
A full day of use with 5+ hours of screen-on time.

How long are you intending to use this phone?​

Should run fine for 3 years.

​

Connectivity -​

What is your preferred network?​

5G

What is the number of connections required?​

Single SIM

Platform :​

Operating System (OS) -​

Do you have any OS preference?​

Android

​

RAM & Storage -​

How much RAM and Storage do you want?​

6-8GB; 128-256GB

Do you want a memory card slot?​

A Hybrid slot is fine

Processing power -​

If you have an idea of how much processing power you'd need mention here, else feel free to ignore.​

As long as it stays snappy

​

Display :​

What is your preferred display size, type, resolution and refresh rate?​

Compact, AMOLED, FHD, 120Hz.

Mention any specific requirements here.​

Don't want a curved display; LTPO would be nice

Miscellaneous :​

Any other requirements?​

Lightweight-ish. Metal frame. Main+Wide+Zoom triple camera combo would be nice

If you have already considered a phone, then please mention.​

Another S20 FE

 

[OMEGA44-XT]

I doubt anything other than S23FE can outperform the camera of S20FE at that price. But S23FE is a bad phone because of heating issues & poor battery life. So realistically, S23 is the cheapest Samsung phone that is decent. I upgraded from S20FE to S23 & the biggest difference for me is the smaller size. Battery life felt better as well but my S20FE was 3 years old. Selfie cam was a major upgrade but rear cams were minor upgrades.

I have compared NP 2a & S20FE side by side, latter has better cameras (except selfie). S20 FE's software post-processing helps it a lot IMO even against many sub 40k Chinese phones.

Moto edge 50 pro is said to have great cameras under 30k, but I doubt it will outperform S20FE.

 

[sauravghosh]

Do check YouTube and other reviews with camera samples. Samsungs are quite terrible with their cameras. I'm looking for a phone in the same range and unless you take photos to post on social media there are no cameras which will satisfy you. My point is camera focused and samsung doesn't go together, unless you prefer cartoonish colours.

 

[OMEGA44-XT]

Do check YouTube and other reviews with camera samples. Samsungs are quite terrible with their cameras. I'm looking for a phone in the same range and unless you take photos to post on social media there are no cameras which will satisfy you. My point is camera focused and samsung doesn't go together, unless you prefer cartoonish colours.

Not sure what's your source, but you need to change them

 

[sid41299]

I doubt anything other than S23FE can outperform the camera of S20FE at that price. But S23FE is a bad phone because of heating issues & poor battery life. So realistically, S23 is the cheapest Samsung phone that is decent. I upgraded from S20FE to S23 & the biggest difference for me is the smaller size. Battery life felt better as well but my S20FE was 3 years old. Selfie cam was a major upgrade but rear cams were minor upgrades.

I have compared NP 2a & S20FE side by side, latter has better cameras (except selfie). S20 FE's software post-processing helps it a lot IMO even against many sub 40k Chinese phones.

Moto edge 50 pro is said to have great cameras under 30k, but I doubt it will outperform S20FE.

Not to mention that the S23 FE still carries the same ultrawide and zoom cameras as the S20 FE. Samsung really made an almost-perfect phone and then never did that again.

The S23 is my first choice as well, but I simply cannot afford it now, especially when I consider how much I paid for my S20 FE in Oct. '22 (26K new). The Edge 50 Pro is my second choice, but I'm hesitating because OneUI is quite convenient for me, and I've struggled to get properly used to Moto's UI even after three months with a temp G40 Fusion.

I don't use phones for heavy gaming, it just has to be snappy for a long time. Does the S23 FE heat up under daily use as well?

 

[sauravghosh]

Not sure what's your source, but you need to change them

Then I need to turn off internet entirely. I feel I hit a fanboy nerve.

 

[OMEGA44-XT]

Not to mention that the S23 FE still carries the same ultrawide and zoom cameras as the S20 FE. Samsung really made an almost-perfect phone and then never did that again.

The S23 is my first choice as well, but I simply cannot afford it now, especially when I consider how much I paid for my S20 FE in Oct. '22 (26K new). The Edge 50 Pro is my second choice, but I'm hesitating because OneUI is quite convenient for me, and I've struggled to get properly used to Moto's UI even after three months with a temp G40 Fusion.

I don't use phones for heavy gaming, it just has to be snappy for a long time. Does the S23 FE heat up under daily use as well?

Yes, there's no good replacement for S20FE 5G. Future models had bad SoCs, thus an easy no like Pixel no matter how good cameras are. I don't like stock android myself because of the barebones nature but situation has improved. Old Oxygen OS was great, but now its just color OS (though they have improved, will prefer color OS over funtouch or Hyper OS anyday).

Then I need to turn off internet entirely. I feel I hit a fanboy nerve.

Then I would have recommended S23FE to OP. Pixels & Samsungs have the best cameras in android space, some vivo phones are doing well recently as well but cheaper vivo/oppo phones are a blind no for me (you can get better value by opting for OP or iQoo options).

 

[sid41299]

Moto edge 50 pro is said to have great cameras under 30k, but I doubt it will outperform S20FE.

From GSMArena: "Let's say that you have €700 to spend on the Edge 50 Pro in Europe. A Galaxy S23 goes for as much in 256GB spec, and it will get you a proper high-end chipset (if last year's) in a truly compact package. The Galaxy will have the upper hand in video recording, though camera performance outside of that should be roughly comparable, all the way to the excellent selfies. Similarly, the Galaxy's DeX is a good match for the Moto's Ready For and Moto Connect functionality, and the two phones have similar battery life. The Moto will charge meaningfully faster though"

What do you think? I don't need stellar video, but the on-par-with-S23 photography experience is good to hear. Also, I don't use phones for heavy gaming, it just has to be snappy for a long time. Does the S23 FE heat up under daily use as well?

 

[sauravghosh]

Then I would have recommended S23FE to OP. Pixels & Samsungs have the best cameras in android space, some vivo phones are doing well recently as well but cheaper vivo/oppo phones are a blind no for me (you can get better value by opting for OP or iQoo options).

Okay sorry then.
I myself would have bought a Samsung if they had acceptable cameras. But them colours are absurd.

 

[sid41299]

Okay sorry then.
I myself would have bought a Samsung if they had acceptable cameras. But them colours are absurd.

Samsung's screens are usually set to an extremely oversaturated preset out-of-the-box, and from my experience the photos were a bit too flat in terms of colour out of the stock camera app on my S20 FE. Putting a flat-looking photo on an oversaturated screen can lead to the weird "cartoon-like" colours that you experienced. Photos from my phone never "popped" with colour till I started using GCam, and even then I'd have to tweak the vibrance and hues till it looked good for social media.

But if you're talking about seeing samples outside a Samsung screen then I don't know what to tell you. As I said before, the photos came with fairly flat colours straight from stock

 

[sauravghosh]

Samsung's screens are usually set to an extremely oversaturated preset out-of-the-box, and from my experience the photos were a bit too flat in terms of colour out of the stock camera app on my S20 FE. Putting a flat-looking photo on an oversaturated screen can lead to the weird "cartoon-like" colours that you experienced. Photos from my phone never "popped" with colour till I started using GCam, and even then I'd have to tweak the vibrance and hues till it looked good for social media.

But if you're talking about seeing samples outside a Samsung screen then I don't know what to tell you. As I said before, the photos came with fairly flat colours straight from stock

Sorry bhai. We are on different dimensions. Seems like you prefer boosted colours, and post them on social media. Whereas I prefer as much as accurate colours as possible. All mobile phones boost them, but Samsung does it to an extent which puts something like google photos' dynamic preset to shame. Anyway, good luck on finding a suitable phone.

 

[OMEGA44-XT]

From GSMArena: "Let's say that you have €700 to spend on the Edge 50 Pro in Europe. A Galaxy S23 goes for as much in 256GB spec, and it will get you a proper high-end chipset (if last year's) in a truly compact package. The Galaxy will have the upper hand in video recording, though camera performance outside of that should be roughly comparable, all the way to the excellent selfies. Similarly, the Galaxy's DeX is a good match for the Moto's Ready For and Moto Connect functionality, and the two phones have similar battery life. The Moto will charge meaningfully faster though"

What do you think? I don't need stellar video, but the on-par-with-S23 photography experience is good to hear. Also, I don't use phones for heavy gaming, it just has to be snappy for a long time. Does the S23 FE heat up under daily use as well?

In daylight, most 20-25k phones can compete with flagships these days. Difference comes in low light situations & 2nd/3rd cameras.

Moto Edge 50 pro & Edge 50 neo are Moto's best options under 30k. If you have a budget constraint, have to live with it. Unless you click a lot of pics, you will get used to it for sure IMO.

Okay sorry then.
I myself would have bought a Samsung if they had acceptable cameras. But them colours are absurd.

Which Samsung phones did you use? Samsung still has slightly saturated colours IMO, friend's Pixel 6a seemed to have a more natural colour tone but I have seen more saturated colours in some Chinese phones. Anyways I am fine with colour output of Samsung flagships (current phone is S23, earlier had S20FE, S8, Sony Z3C)

Also, Samsung's non-flagship phones are almost always priced out of its league, thus seemed underwhelming.

 

[sid41299]

In daylight, most 20-25k phones can compete with flagships these days. Difference comes in low light situations & 2nd/3rd cameras.

Moto Edge 50 pro & Edge 50 neo are Moto's best options under 30k. If you have a budget constraint, have to live with it. Unless you click a lot of pics, you will get used to it for sure IMO.

Bought the Edge 50 Pro in black. I think the cameras might actually great, and not just good, but let's see.

Sidenote: F**K Flipkart. They listed the 12GB model as having a "₹1000 Off On All Banks Credit Card Non EMI aTransactions" (sic), but that never got applied, and the black 8GB model was just showing an "Item is not available for purchase" error. Going to pursue that discount too hell and back